It's A War
by FallenAngel36
Summary: The gang has graduated from Hogwarts and while working on location in Los Angeles meet four interesting girls with a certain secret. What is it?
1. Clumsy People and Foreign Friends

It's a War  
  
Summary: It's four years after the gang graduates from Hogwarts and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean are working with a few famous American aurors trying to earn a living. They are taking a break from work when they happen to literally bump into four teenage American girls. The boys quickly make friends with them in hopes of getting better aquainted with Los Angeles, but there is some thing slightly familiar about those girls..  
  
A/N: Now I warn you, school does come first, but I will try my best to keep the pauses between chapters few and short if I get enough reviews, but I can't promise you much.  
  
Disclaimer: I see everyone else has one of these in order to save themselves from a law suit so here is my meager attempt: I own none of these characters save Lilah, Danni, Tally, Laurel, and Martha who are based loosely on me and a couple of my friends. The Del Amo Mall really is a mall in Torrence and it has this HUGE parking lot that wraps all the way around the building and though it is not the biggest mall in LA it is fairly large. I also own the plot and the Muffin Shoppe, but that's it. On with the show!!!!  
  
~~**~~  
  
Chapter 1: Accidents and Conversations  
  
~~**~~  
  
BEEP BEEP  
  
Hermione shot up in bed and stared around in bewilderment. ::Why the hell would someone set the alarm clock for six thirty on a Saturday morning????:: She was trying to think, then she realized. "Duh, I'm supposed to have an early breakfast with the guys and then go sight seeing. Merlin, whose idea was it to start this early? Oh," she giggled quietly to herself, "mine." Hermione sighed and kicked the covers off her legs and walked over to the door.  
  
Ever since they arrived in Los Angeles four years ago, all that they had done was move into a fairly large house in Hancock Park that Dean had inherited from a nameless great-uncle together and work, work, work. They had bearly graduated from Hogwarts as fully fledged witches and wizards, when Fudge had offered them this opportunity, and they wouldn't miss it for anything. Although, at first her parents were a little worried that their 18-year-old daughter wouldn't be safe in a big city, they got over it once they realized how much she wanted to go. Now, she was 21 and they had been in LA for almost four years and were wondering if the town offered anything except the walls of an office. A week ago at lunch she had looked down at her planner saw that that weekend was empty and suggested that they do some sight seeing.  
  
Now she couldn't wait to go swimming in the Pacific Ocean.  
  
She stole softly out of her room, down the hall to Ron's and quietly pushed open the door. He hadn't heard the alarm and was still fast sleep, drool and all. Hermione kissed his forehead lightly and said, "Ron love, it's time to get up." His eyes flickered open and he smiled at her.  
  
"Only if I have to."  
  
"Oh you have to all right. I've waited four years to really see this city and I can't wait any longer. Now get up and wake the rest of the boys, I'll be in the bathroom." She straightened and watched as Ron slowly got out of bed and dragged himself first to Harry's room, then Seamus's, and then Dean's. She giggled to herself when she remembered how opposed she was to living with four guys. She had cringed at the thought of how messy they were and how much time it would take to clean up after them, but had quickly gotten used to it with the overload of work to keep her busy.  
  
She yawned as she gathered her clothes and headed to the bathroom.  
  
As she stepped out of her room she nearly ran headlong into a shirt-less Dean. "Morning Dean." She squeaked turning beet red and ran into her bathroom across the hall slamming and locking the door behind her. In the hallway Dean blinked, shrugged, and grunted "'Morning." To the spot where Hermione had been standing moments before, and continued on his way to the kitchen to get some coffee.  
  
Hermione turned the taps to freezing cold at the faucet and splashed her face with water. "You have got to stop freaking out every time you see one of the guys shirt-less. It is going to happen." She muttered to herself. She sighed, turned off the taps at the sink and turned the shower on. She then stripped and took a quick shower, washing her hair as she went. When she was finished, she shook all of the water out of her hair, blow dried it and straightened it with a touch of her wand to her temple. She washed her face and brushed her teeth then dressed in white capris and a pink T-shirt. When she was done she went back to her room and made up her bed, fluffing the pillows in all the right places, folded her pajamas and stored them in a drawer in the dresser. She grabbed her purse off the chair by the door and went down the staircase, her thong sandals smacking the stone steps as she went. Judging from the silence upstairs and the faint sound from a TV downstairs, the boys were already done and ready to go.  
  
She walked into the kitchen and all of the boys turned and looked at her. Ron's mouth dropped open and cereal dropped back into the bowl in front of him. Hermione giggled and said, "After two and a half years together you still do that every time I walk into a room." She walked over and kissed him on his jawbone. The only part of him she could reach.  
  
"It's not that, it's just that you haven't straightened your hair since that faculty banquette two months ago. You look beautiful."  
  
"Why Ronald Weasley are you trying to make me blush in front of our friends?" At this Ron blushed and grinned his goofy trademark grin.  
  
"No, but you do look very pretty." He scooped her up into his arms and kissed her gently on the lips.  
  
"Ewww" Harry said, "Hermione can you just eat so we can leave and get started? Besides I'm still trying to get used to seeing my best friends kiss front of me."  
  
"Yeah it's disgusting." Said Seamus not taking his eyes off the TV in front of him.  
  
"Shut up to the both of you, and leave them alone, besides Seamus you didn't even see them." Dean said from the sink where he was rinsing his dish and putting it into the dishwasher.  
  
"So? I could her them just fine."  
  
"Oh hush we'll stop." Hermione said grabbing a bagel and checking her watch, "Well let's go. It is nine thirty, that means we have about three hours until we have to eat lunch or Ron here will die of starvation."  
  
She walked out the back door munching on the bagel in her hand and swinging the keys to the Dinali she and Ron had bought once they had arrived in Los Angeles on her extended pinkie finger. (Who ever knew you could make so much money being an auror?) The boys turned off the TV and followed her out the door. Hermione climbed into the passenger's seat and waited for the boys to clamber into the car before handing Ron the keys.  
  
Hermione buckled in and smiled at Ron.  
  
"Where to?" He asked brightly.  
  
"Well we need to go pass the Muffin Shoppe 'cause I need to get directions from Martha." She said referring to the young woman who ran the coffee shop and who had been helping them find their way around the city so far.  
  
"Cool, Muffin Shoppe here we come." Ron said turning on the engine, but screaming when loud rock music blared through the sound system.  
  
"Sorry. Knew I forgot to do something when I got out the car yesterday." Seamus said innocently from the back seat.  
  
"'S all right Seamus." Ron muttered rubbing his ears and cursing under his breath.  
  
~~~***~~~  
  
At the same time that Hermione and the gang were pulling out of the garage. Lilah Farstone pulled her car in front of the house she shared with four of her best friends. She beeped twice on the horn and screamed out the window, "Danni Lets roll! We said we'd meet the girls in an hour and we still have to get smooties!!!!"  
  
Danni Higgins came running out the house into the early spring morning air which was relatively warm, it being California, only stopping to untangle herself from her cat Moe, "Damn cat!", and to shut and lock the front door. She flew around the back of the hard topped Mustang convertible and jumped in the passenger's seat, just as Lilah put the top down.  
  
"What look you so long? I woke you up nearly two hours ago, I was beginning to think you were sewing your clothes instead of just putting them on. Nice sweatshirt by the way." She added noticing that they were wearing matching hooded sweatshirts. "GO Trojans!" All of the girls had the same sweat shirts because they all grew up rooting for the Trojan football team and had at least one sibling that went there.  
  
"Oh shut up you. Let's just get smoothies I'm starving."  
  
"All rightie then Miss. Co. Pilot. Muffin Shoppe here we come."  
  
They navigated their way through Saturday morning traffic to the coffeehouse with Lilah screaming insults at the drivers that got in her way, parked and walked in.  
  
"Ahh, how I do love the smell of coffee in the morning. Too bad it turns your teeth brown." Lilah said flashing her own pearly whites, the result of many painful years of braces, and pulling out her wallet.  
  
"What are you doing?" Danni asked her.  
  
"Getting ready to pull my money out. What's it look like?"  
  
"No I'm paying 'cause it's your 22nd birthday. You should know the rules missy, you helped make them."  
  
"Thanks Danni." Lilah said turning to the counter to order her drink, then moving over so that Danni could do the same. They sat on the barstools talking while they waited for their drinks.  
  
"Why did Tally and Lor leave early again?" Danni asked again.  
  
"I dunno, something about buying something at some other place. I was half asleep when she barged into my room talking about this 'really cute pair of shoes that she just had to have' or something like that."  
  
Behind the girls, the door opened several times, several pairs of flip flops walked across the stone floor of the café, a female voice talk to the store owner and a male voice order four coffees and a strawberry smothie. But took no notice of the actual people.  
  
While they waited, the group of people were given their coffees and a number for their smothie.  
  
A little while later both numbers were called and two people got up to get the orders. One person was Lilah and the other was Harry. Lilah's table was closest to the counter so she got there first. She picked up the smoothies and turned around to leave, but instead of walking through thin air, she walked into Harry's chest spilling smoothies all down her front. She jumped back a foot but the damage was already done. Her prized sweatshirt was ruined. "Oh no." She moaned pulling it off to get a better look at the stain.  
  
"Oh my, I am so sorry, I really didn't see you." Lilah looked up at the sound of a thick British accent and was startled to see hunk that looked about her age standing in front of her. He had messy jet-black hair and sparkling green eyes. He had a chiseled face and a muscle-in-all-the-right- places body. Woah!!!!!  
  
**~~~**  
  
Wham!  
  
Harry was snapped out of his thoughts when he felt something small and hard hit him square in the chest.  
  
"Woah!" He looked down at a cute petite brunette who was looking down at a ruined sweatshirt and looked like she was about to cry.  
  
"Oh no." She mumbled more to herself than to anyone else.  
  
"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, I really didn't see you." The girl's head snapped up and at first she looked like she would kill him, then her eyes slowly widened as she took in his hair and his eyes. He in turn looked at her and realized that now that he could see her face, she wasn't just cute, she was beautiful. She had slightly curly red/brown hair that was up in a loose bun, light milk chocolately skin and very hazel, almost yellow eyes and very, very red cheeks.  
  
"Oh dear look what Harry did now." Said a taunting Irish voice from the direction of the table that the large group was sitting at, "I certainly do hope he knows how to fix this one." Lilah stole a glance around the hunk that the voice called Harry and saw three male faces and one female face behind Danni's shocked one.  
  
"Shut up Seamus." Harry said. Before turning back to Lilah and continuing with his apologies. "I really am sorry, I was lost in my own world and didn't even see you."  
  
"That's all right." Said the girl in front of him, "By the way I'm Lilah, Lilah Farstone."  
  
"Nice to meet you, I'm Harry Potter." Harry said reaching behind Lilah and grabbing a few napkins off the counter and wiping most of the smoothie residue off her beloved sweatshirt.  
  
"I'm really sorry about your sweatshirt, it's such a nice color too." He said gently touching the maroon fabric and turning around to grin at Ron who glared back. He only remembered all too well the hideous sweaters that his mom made him every Christmas and had purposely left them all at the Burrow in England "By the way I hope you don't mind me asking, but who are the Trojans?"  
  
At this, Lilah's mouth dropped open and she stared at Harry and waved frantically at Danni to come to her. Danni got up and approached the pair.  
  
"What's wrong Lilah?"  
  
"Danni, I think these people are new here."  
  
"How could you tell?" Danni asked sarcastically, "It was the accents wasn't it?"  
  
"They don't know about the Trojans." Then Danni's mouth dropped open and she stared at Harry too.  
  
"What?" He asked, "Is there something on my face?"  
  
Lilah promptly shut her mouth and shut Danni's for her. Lilah cleared her throat, "Where are you from? How long have you been here?" She asked directly.  
  
"England." Called the girl from the table, "Although Seamus here is Irish. We've been here for four years, why?"  
  
"Merlin, four years and they still don't know about American football, sheesh. The USC Trojans, they are a football team at one of the UC colleges around here. Their biggest rivals are the UCLA Bruins." This last part she spat out showing obvious dislike for the last team.  
  
"Yeah well anyway I'm sorry about your sweatshirt. Here let me buy you more smoothies to replace the ruined ones." Harry turned around and told the cashier the necessary information and then faced everyone again. "By the way these are my friends Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnigan."  
  
"Nice to meet you all. Um, this is Danni Higgins." Danni waved hello and then everyone sat in silence for a moment.  
  
The group from London all thought the same thing, ::They all look so familiar.::  
  
"Well it was nice meeting you, but we have to get going, gotta figure out how to get to the Del Amo Mall before it closes." Hermione said breaking the quiet reverie.  
  
"Well if you needed to get to Del Amo why didn't you just say so, we're on our way there now. Why don't you guys follow us."  
  
"That'd be great!" Hermione said brightly.  
  
"Um here is my cell phone number in case you get lost." Lilah said writing her number on a napkin and handing it to Hermione, who took it and read it a couple of times.  
  
"Then here is mine." Hermione said as she whipped out her cell phone and logged Lilah's number in, and Lilah did the same with hers.  
  
"Well let's go." Danni said checking her watch, "We are likely to hit a lot of traffic and we were supposed to meet our friends fifteen minutes ago and Lilah here can be little demon driver when she is in a rush. So you'd better stay close behind us." With that all three girls walked out talking and giggling about things that no boy would understand and who knows what else.  
  
"Friends? There're more of them? I hope they look just like those two do. If they do I think I might just ask one of them out." Seamus watching all three girls approach a red convertible and climb in. The boys walked out the café and walked over to the sports car.  
  
"Guys, I'm going to ride with Lilah and Danni all right? Don't drive Ron crazy." She kneeled on the back seat and planted a soft kiss on Ron's lips. "Drive safe," she said slipping him her cell phone so that they could reach each other. Lilah gassed the engine and looked at the boys who were just standing there.  
  
"Well? Are you coming or not?" All of the boys scrambled around the red car and jumped in the black Diniali parked next to it. Lilah pulled out of the parking lot and started on the way to the mall.  
  
"So how long have all of you known each other?" Danni asked turning around to face Hermione.  
  
"Well we've been going to school together since we were eleven and now were 22, well at least Harry will join us tomorrow. But Ron and I have gotten a little closer in the past two years if you know what I mean."  
  
"Yeah I know exactly what you mean." Lilah said smiling thinking about how much closer she would like to get to the hunk that smashed into her. What was his name again? Oh yeah Harry Potter he looked really familiar . . .  
  
"How long have you known each other?"  
  
"Well, I've known Danni since I was three, met her at a daycare center in Beverly Hills in a building where our parents worked. I've known Torrence since I was born seeing as she's my mom's best friend's daughter, and we met Tally Kaves and Laurel Robinson in grade school, you'll meet them once we get to the mall, then we all went to the same boarding school as soon as sixth grade started."  
  
"Wow, that's a long time."  
  
"You're telling me, I can read Danni here like an old book. The other two are a little tough though." They all laughed at this and had a great time for the rest of the ride to the mall.  
  
~~~***~~~  
  
"So what did you guys think? Can they be trusted?" Ron asked from the driver's seat.  
  
"Well, when Lilah took off her sweatshirt, you could see the inside of her arm and she didn't have the dark mark so she isn't a Death Eater and I'm guessing her friends aren't either." Dean said from behind Ron.  
  
"Yeah I guess you're right." Ron said.  
  
"Those times are over, let's just pass that over and get on with life, it's been four years." Seamus said.  
  
"Sea's right, but they sure were pretty. If their friends look just like them I'm sure we'll all have girlfriends by the end of the week if they aren't already taken, and I don't doubt that at least one of them already is." Dean said.  
  
"Yeah." Said Harry quietly thinking of Lilah's curly hair and her odd but beautiful eyes. And how her eyes had filled with tears at the sight of her ruined sweatshirt, she obviously had some sentimental value tied to it. He reminded himself to ask her later and hoped she wouldn't cry again.  
  
"We all know who Harry has his eye on." Said Seamus from the back, "The pretty brunette who he nearly killed."  
  
"Well, I didn't nearly kill her, but I would like to get to know her."  
  
"You know what they say, you only get one chance, and you might as well take it." Dean said reassuringly. "And mate, I think she likes you too."  
  
At this Harry smiled to himself and wondered for the millionth time in his life what it would be like to have a serious relationship with someone.  
  
"Oh look that must be it. The Del Amo Mall." Ron said.  
  
"Looks big, I hope Hermione doesn't keep us here too long."  
  
"Probably not seeing as she really wants to go to the beach sometime this weekend." Harry said.  
  
"Yeah I hope we get to do that."  
  
"What the hell happened here????" Ron muttered under his breath seeing a completely empty parking lot, save one car near the front.  
  
"Something is wrong. Something tells me that this parking lot isn't usually like this."  
  
~~**~~  
  
A/N: Well, I hope you liked the subtle but obvious changes! Ignore that thing down there, I have no idea how it got there and I can't figure out how to make it go away.  
  
Also, if anyone knows how to do italics and bolds and stuff, please tell me! 


	2. The Beginning

A/N: Finally!!!! Chapter two, now all you NDA girls can STOP PESTERING ME! Here's your stupid chapter, thank lolo for typing it for me cause I am entirely too lazy to do it, plus I had some major writer's block. Enjoy!  
  
Disclaimer: I own none of the Harry Potter Characters, but the rest are all from moi! The phrase "Woah Skippy!" Came from my friend Sydni. She used to say this whenever I started to talk too fast or got ahead of myself in any explanations. So don't even try to sue me 'cause you won't get nothin but a quarter because I've suspended myself from getting my allowance- long story, ask if you want the whole tale . . .  
  
Chapter2-The Beginning  
  
Lilah turned one final corner and pulled into the parking lot, still laughing at something Hermione had said, but stopped as soon as she pulled into the parking lot. She gasped in horror at what she faced. A parking lot completely empty save Tally's Lexus SUV parked near the mall's entrance.  
  
"What the hell?" she almost screamed.  
  
Danni was balled up in the passenger's sear muttering to herself. "Oh no. Not here. Not now. Please don't let this happen now..."  
  
"What's going on? It's almost noon. The mall should be open and running by now!" Ron yelled from the front seat of his car.  
  
But Lilah wasn't listening. As a matter of fact, she wasn't even in the car anymore. As soon as she had recognized whose car the Lexus was, she had jumped out of the car and ran as fast as she could to see what had happened.  
  
Danni climbed into the driver's seat and drove to the front of the parking lot in silence, Ron and the boys right behind her. When they reached the parked Lexus, everyone got out of the cars and faced each other.  
  
"What's going on?" Seamus asked tentatively. Lilah stared straightened up from the window of the front seat of the Lexus where a tall blonde sat getting ready to get out of the car. When she emerged, Seamus saw that the chick was taller than he expected. In fact, she was almost as tall as he was. He grinned stupidly at her when he realized how pretty she was and she smiled back, flashing pearly white teeth. Out of the passenger's seat climbed a girl of medium height with bright blue eyes, her dark red hair was pulled back into a ponytail that reached halfway down her back and several freckles dotted her small nose and cheeks.  
  
"Um, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, Dean, these are my friends Talulah Kaves, Tally for short," Lilah said, pointing at the blonde. "And this is Laurel, Lor for short. Tally, Lor, meet Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas."  
  
"Nice to meet you," said Tally, with a slow southern drawl as she smiled and nodded.  
  
"So, what's going on?" asked Seamus again.  
  
"Well, we don't exactly know, but we have an idea what it could be," Tally said, looking grimly up at the mall building.  
  
"I know exactly what's happening," Danni said in a small voice. "Guys, we've been trying to avoid this for months- years now and we can't avoid it any longer." She cleared her throat and became bolder and stronger visibly. "It is inevitably going to happen so we might as well stand up and face it. This is a war. There is no escaping it. We've got no choice." With that, she reached into her sweatshirt pocket and whipped out a wand, drawing gasps from their foreign friends.  
  
"Woah there, Skippy! Don't you think we should explain what's happening so they don't freak out on us?" said Lor coming from around the Lexus.  
  
"Too late," Ron muttered with wide eyes.  
  
"Wait a minute. You guys are witches?" Hermione asked trying to clarify the situation.  
  
"Well, yeah. Really we're Research Aurors in the American Magic Ministry. Please don't be afraid of us," Danni muttered, looking pointedly at Dean from under a mop of curls.  
  
"Hold on! We're not muggles either! I'm a witch and these four are wizards." Before anyone could even blink, all four girls were in front of the foreigners brandishing their wand tips.  
  
"What's wrong?" Harry asked, beginning to get scared.  
  
"IF you're who you say you are, then you already know that there is a war going on between the Dark side and the Light Side and that there are traitors in our midst. That being said, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to show the inside of your left arms. You could be one of 'them', trying to lure us into a trap," Lor said.  
  
"Have you gone mad?" Ron yelled. "Do you have any idea who this is?" he yelled, pointing to Harry. "It's HARRY POTTER! The Boy-Who-Lived!" Harry smiled sheepishly and rocked back and forth on his heels. He was still a little self-conscious about this whole Boy-Who-Lived thing.  
  
"Do you have proof?"  
  
Harry raised his eyebrows at this, but proceeded to brush his hair off his forehead, showing his famed scar to his newfound friends.  
  
"Wow!" said Lilah, lowering her wand. "Isn't that where Voldemort, you know." her voice trailed off at this point. She was unable to find words to explain the horrible thing the Dark Lord had done, he was gone, but it was still a bit scary. Harry was shocked to learn that someone besides Dumbledore and himself wasn't afraid to say Voldemort's name. It was just a name after all. He nodded anyway.  
  
"Does it ever hurt?"  
  
"Sometimes I had dreams and connections with Voldemort, but only when he was feeling particularly murderous or hateful."  
  
Suddenly a scream pierced the air and all heads snapped around to face the entrance to the mall.  
  
"They're in there. I know it," Tally said, sounding very determined. "And I think they have hostages."  
  
"Well, if they do, we have to go in there and fight them back. They will never win this war," Hermione said, staring around at everyone. "We just need to make them realize it."  
  
"Let's go kick some Death Eater ass!" Dean yelled, slapping five with Seamus and watching and Lilah and Danni did some sort of handshake.  
  
"They're not death eaters." Tally said with a serious frown.  
  
"Huh?" Seamus said not comprehending.  
  
"They're not death eaters."  
  
"Oh, okay, I could have sworn she said that those weren't death eaters."  
  
"I did stupid."  
  
"Then what are they?"  
  
"Malefica, you'll see when we get in there, but a word of advice, be on your guard."  
  
"Right then, let's go," Harry said, putting on a serious face. He and Lilah lead the way to the glass double doors and as they opened them, they held their wands at the ready just in case a Maleficus planned a surprise attack. Once they were all inside, Harry stopped but didn't put his wand down. Everything looked normal but the halls in front of them were empty on both sides. The shops all looked like their owners had just started opening when the Malfica had attacked. Some of the shops were still locked, some were open, and still others had the bars only halfway open.  
  
"It's quiet," Ron muttered softly. "Too quiet." Just then they heard the scream again.  
  
"It sounds like a little girl. They're torturing an innocent child!" Lor said, looking scandalized.  
  
"I'm afraid that they would and only find it much more fun that torturing adults," Tally said putting a hand on her shoulder with a sad look on her face. "But we'll save them and end this before they can do too much damage. I hope." She added the last part under her breath.  
  
Again they heard a cry, but this time it was words. "NO! PLEASE! NOT JANE! TAKE ME! I'LL DO ANYTHING!" Came the anguished cry.  
  
"SILENCE!" yelled a very deep-pitched voice, it was graty almost like rocks clashing together underwater. A screaming child's voice followed and then stopped abruptly.  
  
"Oh, Merlin! It's him!" Danni whispered. "Now we have to be extra careful. What ever you do, don't get him angry. He can't kill us, but we still have to be careful."  
  
"What do you mean 'he' can't kill us?" Harry asked, looking interested.  
  
"It's a long, long very old story and I promise I'll tell you if we get out of this alive," Lilah said to him.  
  
"I'd like that," Harry said, smiling a little in spite of the serious situation they were all in at the moment.  
  
"Hate you break up the moment you two, but what are we going to do about our current situation?" Tally asked with a slight smile playing on her lips.  
  
Harry and Lilah blushed, but Lilah recovered quickly and said, "Well, here's what we're going to do. Ron, you go with Harry. Seamus, you go with Dean. Tally, you go with Lor. And Hermione, you can come with Danni and me."  
  
"But what if 'he' thinks he can hurt you. You're girls and defenseless. He'll take that to his advantage," Dean said, sounding a little worried as he hot one nervous glance at Danni and then looking at Lilah again.  
  
"One thing you need to know about Lor, Dean. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT call Lor a helpless girl to her face. She may be tiny, but she's probably got as much strength as you and Seamus combined," Lor said.  
  
"I doubt that," Seamus muttered.  
  
"Oh yeah? Want to try me?" Lor asked, fire flashing in her eyes. "I could take you anytime, anywhere."  
  
"No thanks. Really. I think I'll take a rain check," Seamus said, backing away from Lor a bit.  
  
"Well, we better get going then. We've got people to save, Malefica to beat into a pulp...you know the drill," Tally said, stepping between the two, not wanting to see a cute guy dead. "Now take your partner and get!" she nudged Seamus towards Dean before grabbing Lor's shoulder and yanking her along a deserted corridor to their left.  
  
"Where is she from?" Seamus said, looking after her in awe.  
  
"She lived in Atlanta up until third grade when here family moved out here. We've all been friends ever since," Danni said. "Well, let's take her advice. Lilah, Hermione, let's go!" She led the way down the corridor on their right without looking back. Lilah nodded at the boys, then Hermione and Lilah followed her.  
  
When Lilah looked over at Danni's face, she saw determination etched in every curve of her face and her eyes flashed dangerously. It surprised her because Danni was usually calm and quiet unless she was playing her bass. She never acted this way and she usually hated battling the Echthroi and usually was the first to Apparate to the Ministry with the survivors. Something must have happened to her. Lilah mused. I'll ask her about it later.  
  
They continued down the corridor searching the shops for clues and slowly making their way towards the food court. Once they got there, they gasped and stared in horror at what lay there. People dead and wounded were everywhere, mostly early shoppers and store owners. The girls hadn't seen their cars so they guessed they had parked on the other side of the mall.  
  
"I think I'll need back up in the healing department." Lilah murmured.  
  
"Oh, Merlin!" Danni said, rushing over to a bleeding and crying child. "She only looks about five. How could he do this to someone so young? Doesn't he have a heart?"  
  
"No, he doesn't," Lilah said quietly. "Remember, Harry was only one when Voldemort tried to kill him. He isn't much different, and he doesn't have a heart and if he does, it's completely made of stone and ice. I wonder if she's the one he tortured?"  
  
"Probably, but what do we do now?" Danni asked.  
  
"I'll call an ambulance from the LA branch of St. Mungo's, just in case the damages are magical," Lilah said, pulling out her cell phone and walking a couple feet away. They could hear bits of the conversation from where they stood. "Remember, this does not get out to the press, muggle or magical, just tell them that all the attractions today are canceled due to remodeling or something!" She was waving her arms in frustration and the attendant was barely listening to her.  
  
Hermione walked around, stepping carefully over dead bodies and surveying the damages on those that were still breathing. Most were odd, very interesting. She puled on a pair of white rubber gloves and moved through the massacre slowly, checking wounds to see if they were fatal, most of them were. There were only about there that would probably make it through the night, including the girl.  
  
"Hey Danni! Come here and look at this!" Hermione called from across the food court. Danni nodded and picked up the child rocking her as she walked to where Hermione was keeling next to an unconscious woman.  
  
"This must be her mum. Looks just like her."  
  
"Yeah, she's dead." Hermione said checking her pulse. She turned to the little girl and patted her head affectionately. "Wonder if she has a father? She'll need someone to take care of her."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"I knew that the attacks were bad in America, but I didn't know that they were this bad. I thought that after the last battle, the attacks would stop."  
  
"No, they've only gotten worse." Danni said seriously. "My sister is fifteen, every day she comes home saying that girls are missing from her school. He is killing everyone. Last week, her friend made it into the school play with a leading role, she never showed up to the first practice on Tuesday. That night we went to see if she was just sick or something, but the house was in ruins, smoldering in the dark of the night. My sister fainted on the spot, she'll never be the same again."  
  
Hermione just sat in silence wondering how someone could be so evil.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Harry watched Lilah, Danni and Hermione creep towards the food-court then disappear. He turned to Ron and Dean and Seamus and nodded, saying that it was indeed a war, not just a scrapple between good and evil, it was a downright war.  
  
A/N: Well, some things were changed and some things were added. What I want to know is, did you like it? . . . 


	3. Chapter 3a They're Still Here

A/N: Okay, I know that I haven't updated in a while, but that's because all of my energy has gone into stories that I don't even think will make it up, pointless writing assignments from school, and just trying to get some sleep in the middle of it all. I shouldn't even be doing this now, but anything for the readers, the three that I have, but here is your new chapter.  
  
You know what? I just realized something, at the Galleria, the food court is on the fourth or third floor. I changed everything to Del Amo Mall; which is only one floor for most of the mall, well at least only one floor shows and you enter on the top floor, the rest is underground . . . Cool huh? It's bigger and better. By the way, just for those of you who don't live in LA, who haven't been here in a while, or haven't been here at all, The Galleria at South Bay and Del Amo Mall are real malls, big ones too.  
  
A/N2: Sorry that it's been so long and that this will be incredibly short, but I'm doing it to get a certain person- who will stay un-named- off my back. So here you go, chappie 3a.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, there I said it, now leave me alone. And I don't own the theory of the healing stone from Avalon Web of Magic.  
  
~~**~~  
  
Chapter 3a.- They're Still Here  
  
~~**~~  
  
Danni looked down on the little girl in her arms. "She's so tiny, how old could she be?"  
  
"I' guessing around five or six." Hermione said.  
  
Danni looked down and sighed deeply. "What is this world coming to?"  
  
The girls eyes snapped open sharply and Danni jumped about a mile in the air.  
  
"Holy crap, she scared the life out of me. I bet-"  
  
But she stopped short as the girl started to shake badly. Her eyes were twitching with the effort to stay open and Danni got a good look at her peepers. "Oh no."  
  
They girl's eyes were a sickly green. Puke mixed in with the color of a baby's poop, not a good combination. Her eyes glowed a mysterious light, emanating evil. If they didn't do something quick, she would die.  
  
Danni shakily handed the little girl to Lilah as she walked to the center of the food court muttering something about incompetent employees.  
  
"They got it in her, but how much of it?"  
  
Hermione looked back and forth between the two girls trying to figure out what they were talking about.  
  
"I'm guessing a whole lot. I've never seen the crudus that green before." She knelled down and placed the unconscious girl on the floor, and fumbled around her right wrist for something. Finally she pulled out a light blue stone on a soft silver chain.  
  
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked interested, the girl hadn't even touched her wand, that was different. When Lilah didn't respond, she looked at Danni with a question in her eyes.  
  
Danni leaned in a whispered, "She's healing her, just watch, it's different then regular wizarding measures."  
  
Lilah twisted the chain four times and as she did, the chain grew longer so it didn't twist her skin. She placed the stone on the child's heart and mumbled something in Latin, *"Malfica caedes animus calamitas virtus aurae animas evincere."* Her voice was soft and light as air, as passable as water on a calm day at the beach, an odd combination. Her eyes widened to the size of diner plates.  
  
Hermione looked at Danni strangely. "What'd she say?"  
  
" 'Malfica blood will fail, light's goodness will prevail.' Old Thlanderish saying."  
  
"Thlanderish? Malfica?"  
  
"I'll explain later."  
  
Hermione nodded and turned back to Lilah who was still bent over the girl.  
  
Lilah's eyes were even wider than before and the hazelness had gone, replaced with clear water blue. She had started to shake a little, shivering every now and then. But it steadily got worse. Her shivering turned into convulses and soon, she was gasping deeply, pain etched in every line of her face, yet she kept her hands on the little girl's heart.  
  
"What's wrong with her?!" Hermione asked afraid.  
  
"It's the healing process, it'll be over in a minute."  
  
~~**~~  
  
Lilah' s PoV  
  
Lilah flexed her fingers and expertly placed her hand in the air above the small girl's chest. ::This is gonna be painful.:: She told herself.  
  
"Malfica caedes animus calamitas virtus aurae animas evincere." She said in a soft voice so as not to interrupt the flow of magic.  
  
The effect was almost immediate. She could feel the surge of magic flow through her veins and out of the stone. When she finished with the first transference, she prepared for the second one, the transference of the evil into her body.  
  
She braced her feet against the floor and fought with it. It was very painful, pain beyond anything ever experienced by mankind, worse than child birth, worse than the crutacious times twenty million, almost fatal, but she fought it bravely.  
  
:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*: Everyone's PoV :*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:  
  
Hermione watched, afraid as Lilah's stone pulsed from blue to that sickly green in rapid motion, first the green over taking the whole stone, the blue again, then green again, until the blue finally squished all the green out and it was tossed out of the stone. For a minute, a sickly green mist hovered outside of the stone then it dissolved into thin air.  
  
Danni walked quietly to Lilah and removed the stone from the girl's stomach with a great pull. Lilah shook as the chain unwound itself and collapsed into Danni's arms, shivering and shaking terribly. She stared off into space, her eyes still that crazy blue, shaking and coughing up a storm.  
  
"Is she okay?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Almost, give it a couple of minutes. They really put a lot in her, and she's so tiny." Danni replied trying to hoist Lilah into a sitting position.  
  
Soon, Lilah's eyes had returned to normal, but she still had a far way look in her eyes. When she finally spoke, her voice was faint and stressed. "They're not done yet, they're coming back."  
  
*~~**~~*  
  
Back about thirty minutes with Tally and Lor:  
  
Lor was fuming from her conversation with Seamus. "Can you believe he said that?! Calling me helpless! Why I oughta . . ." She trailed off making a violent gesture in the air.  
  
"You need help." Tally said inspecting something on the ground. She pulled on a pair of gloves and picked it up to get a closer look. "Hmmm . . ." She held it in front of Lor stopping her ranting. "What do you think this is?"  
  
"Fustis remains." She said. "Yunikuo's."  
  
"But I thought he-"  
  
"Nope, only lasted two weeks."  
  
"Oh, then this should be relatively easy."  
  
"Yeah, right." Lor looked up the aisle and spotted something black and green on the ground.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"Looks like a cloak. No stupid!" She whacked Tally over the head and pulled out a pair of gloves. "Don't touch it!" Lor picked it up with her gloves on and put it in a clear bag that she had conjured up. Tally did the same thing with the brown substance.  
  
They continued down the walkway, watching for clues as they went to use as a case against some of the Malefica.  
  
"Why couldn't Torrance come again?"  
  
"Because her sister is still in the hospital."  
  
"What'd they say it was?"  
  
"Tuberculosis."  
  
"I thought that that blood on the tissue had some importance."  
  
"Yep. They got the tests back last night, she won't live to see the New Year."  
  
"Poor Charli."  
  
"Yeah, she is a smart kid."  
  
"Hey, what's that?" Tally pointed to something sliver and shimmery lying in a puddle on the floor in the middle of a intersection of three hallways.  
  
"The one thing odd about Malfica is that they always leave tale-tale signs of where they've been."  
  
"Who do you think it was?" Tally asked bottling the slivery substance, making sure to get all of it.  
  
"Linkoun, no doubt."  
  
"So he lied then."  
  
"Of course! He is the heart of evil, of course he lied."  
  
"Correction, he has no heart."  
  
"Right, forgot about that."  
  
"Something like that is not so easy to forget about."  
  
"Okay, fine, I blocked it out."  
  
"That's better."  
  
The girls continued down the hall picking up clues as they went along muttering about how the evil ones needed to be a bit more organized when they captured a place full of people.  
  
~~**~~  
  
"Ron, do you know where we are?" Harry looked around at the closed shops and deserted hallway that they stood in.  
  
"No idea." Ron scratched his head and stared at the near-by directory thingy, trying to figure out where they were.  
  
Harry sighed and pushed his hair off his head making it stand up more than normal. Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. "Ron, do you get the feeling that we're being watched?"  
  
"Hmmm?" Ron turned to face Harry and his eyebrow arched.  
  
Harry whipped around and came face-to-shin with a small kitten. Harry smiled. "Must have escaped from the pet shop."  
  
"Should we put it back?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess." Harry bent down to pick it up and cradled it in his arms.  
  
Ron stared hard at the creature. "Harry I don't think that's a cat."  
  
"What do you mean it's not a cat? It looks like a cat, and it sounds like a cat. What else would it be, a frog?"  
  
"Well, yeah it looks like and acts like a cat, but do cats have eyes that randomly mist over? No. That thing is not a cat."  
  
Harry looked down at the cat and dropped it in surprise.  
  
It hit the ground with a thud and hissed standing up.  
  
"I've never known a cat that didn't fall on it's feet all of the time." Harry said.  
  
Then the cat started to swell in size.  
  
"Yep, not a cat, definitely not a cat." Ron said backing away slowly.  
  
"Help . . ." Harry called feebly to an empty hallway.  
  
Twenty miles away a figure dressed in all black heard his feeble call and disappeared.  
  
~~**~~  
  
A/N: Well, there it is. In my opinion, it sucked, but it's out. So review, even if it's flames, I don't care... Part two should be out before Christmas, but that's all I'm promising, hell, not even then maybe... 


	4. Torrance and Other Odd Matters

A/N: Holy crud! I haven't updated since. like. ummmmmmmmm.. errr.. Hmmm..  
  
Now, this isn't full proof, but I tried my best, and I may re-update this later this weekend.  
  
Summary: You all should know this by now, but.  
  
It's four years after the gang graduates from Hogwarts and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean are working with a few famous American aurors trying to earn a living. They are taking a break from work when they happen to literally bump into four teenage American girls. The boys quickly make friends with them in hopes of getting better aquainted with Los Angeles, but there is some thing slightly familiar about those girls..  
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The characters that you don't know, mostly the people not from Hogwarts, are owned by me, though the people they are based off of are real. Every character in this story is based on someone I know and even some people a few of the readers know.  
  
~~**~~  
  
It's A War  
  
~~**~~  
  
Torrance and Other Odd Matters  
  
~~**~~  
  
Torrance McKinley sat in a hospital room, absolutely silent. Her brandy colored eyes raked over the pale face in the hospital bed next to her.  
  
The hand resting limply on the white sheets stirred, and Torrance grasped it gently.  
  
The young girl's eyes flickered open and she gazed up at Torrance. "Torri?" She asked quietly. Her voice cracked and she winced.  
  
"Hey there kido, how ya feeling?" Torrance asked brushing the girl's curly black hair out of her face.  
  
"Tired and my throat hurts."  
  
Torrance turned to the stand by the door and poured water into a clear goblet. Both she and the young girl knew it was laced with the dreamless sleep potion, but neither said a word about it.  
  
When Torrance returned to the girl's bedside, the girl's face was a mask of confusion, Torrance put the goblet on the nightstand and slid her hand into the young girl's. "What is it Choral? What's wrong?"  
  
It was a minute before she spoke. "It's my legs, I can't feel them, I can't even move them. My Legs aren't working anymore."  
  
"Oh Choral." Torrance pulled her into a brief hug, then handed her the potion-laced goblet. The young girl drank it silently, then handed it back and folded her hands in her lap.  
  
Suddenly, Choral spoke. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" She raised her eyes to Torrance. "It's okay, you can tell me."  
  
Torrance eyed her, then said softly, "Yes.They've- they've given you until the new year."  
  
Choral sighed and looked towards the window. It wasn't open, but she knew that outside that glass pane, the leaves of fall were spiraling towards the ground signifying that winter is coming. "That's not a very long time." She said dejectedly.  
  
"I know." Torrance said choking back a sob.  
  
The young girl wrapped her slender arms around Torrance's neck and went limp. The potion had taken effect.  
  
The sleeping draught in it's highest form was a basic sleeping potion, perfect for the completely healthy. However, in Choral's case, the potion, even as dilated as it was, could be dangerous to her system.  
  
Though the child was now in a deep sleep, Torrance continued to hold her, content to be with her last living relative this one last time.  
  
That's how the medi wizard found them when he knocked softly on the door half an hour later.  
  
"Miss. McKinley?" He said softly so as not to rouse the sleeping child.  
  
"Oh, hello Dr. Stewards." Torrance said laying her sister down on her pillows. She stood and shook the medic's hand.  
  
Medi Wizard Harold Stewards was a balding man in his fifties. He was the type of man who would have been the perfect grandfather had he ever married.  
  
Stewards never pushed on the fact that it was kept so dark in young Choral McKinley's room. The blinds were always kept shut, and only a single flickering candle was allowed to stay lit. He simply went along on his business. He had a sort of sympathy for the two sisters. When the older sister had only been twelve, their parents, along with their two other siblings had been murdered, he didn't know how. They'd then been sent to live with a grandmother in the south of France for two years, then she'd died, and they'd been taken in by a godfather, a Professor Michael Sanders. Since then, Stewards had been in charge of their health, along with the rest of the Professor's wards. An entire ward had been given to them in the west wing of the hospital. The children under his protection seemed to be out of regular health more that was usual with average children, but then again, these particular kids were not average children.  
  
Stewards nodded at the woman he'd watched grow up from the young age of fifteen. "May I talk to you in the hallway?" He asked softly.  
  
She glanced out the semi open door and winced at the sunlight streaming down the hall. Nodding curtly, she stood placing a pair of sunglasses in front of her eyes. She walked out behind him adjusting her glasses.  
  
Once in the hall, the door slid shut and the medi wizard slid his hands into his pockets while she leaned casually against the door. She flicked a stray piece of short black hair away from her eyes and looked imploringly at him. "Well, what is it?" She said.  
  
After six years with the sisters, he was used to their cold disconnected attitudes towards everything but each other. It was just the way they were, but sometimes it could be disconcerting.  
  
He avoided fiddling with the trinkets in his pockets and looked her in the eye. "Miss. McKinley- Torrance, I'm afraid I have some bad news."  
  
She said nothing, but over the tops of her dark sunglasses, he could see a perfectly arched eyebrow arch in question as if to say, "And."  
  
He cleared his throat and continued. "I'm afraid that her death s closer that we eared. " He took a small silver and blue box off of a shelf near the door and tapped it with his wand. The contraption opened, the sides lying flat on his palm and the top fading away. An image hovered in the once concealed space, one of Choral's body. "This monitors your sister's progress towards death. The black haze in certain parts of her body is the virus that's eating away at her. As it progresses towards the rest of her body, the parts it leaves behind shut down- that's the red haze. As you can see, the haze has progressed to her hips, consuming her legs much faster that we could have ever anticipated."  
  
His voice faded as Torrance tried to grasp what he was saying. Halfway through his explanation, she interrupted him. "How long?" She asked desperately.  
  
The tone of her voice threw Stewards off for a minute, he had never heard her sound so anxious, so confused, so lost all at once. "Excuse me?"  
  
"How long? How long does she have?" She said leaning her head against the wall.  
  
"Until Thanksgiving, but it might be before then."  
  
"That's next Friday." She said softly coming to reality. First mother and father, then Dorien and Daniel, then grandmother, and now Choral, what's wrong with me am I a walking curse?  
  
The rest of the medic's words faded as she slid to the floor and buried her face in her hands. She waved him away impatiently, she wanted to be alone for a moment, to just think. She didn't need to hear about all of that.she'd all ready heard it five times before, no use hearing what she all ready knew.  
  
The medic nodded and walked slowly back to his office feeling very sorry indeed for the last McKinley child.  
  
~~**~~  
  
Three hours later, and Torrance hadn't moved an inch. She hadn't shed a single tear, not that she could. Vampires don't cry.  
  
She had been sitting there for another hour staring silently out of the window, when she heard a soft voice singing in the room. She couldn't make out the words, but she knew the melody, had heard it five times at five funerals.  
  
She stood intending to go back into her sister's room, but as soon as her hand lighted on the door opening device, she heard a faint whisper in her head. "Help." It said over and over again.  
  
She gasped and disapparated in a cloud of black smoke.  
  
~~**~~  
  
Harry and Ron backed slowly back the way they had come.  
  
"Maybe if we walk slowly enough, it won't see us leave." Ron whispered.  
  
"I don't think so." Harry said as the rapidly growing monster stalked after them. "Run!"  
  
They took off at a fast sprint down the corridor, but stopped at a junction between the deserted side of the mall, and the openly populated.  
  
There was a large cloud of black smoke on the floor below them, they could see straight down onto the bottom floor through a large opening in their floor.  
  
They ran to the other side of the opening and leaned over the railing looking down. The smoke cleared and there stood a girl who looked to be their age dressed in black leathers with a sword strapped to her belt, bow in her hand, and a sack of arrows strapped to her back. She jumped into the air and hovered in the open space facing the hallway where the monster would come from.  
  
Ron and Harry looked at each other with confused looks. "Um. Excuse me, but who are you?" Harry said.  
  
She looked down at him over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "Torrance. Who are you?" She shot a glance over their heads. "Where are Lilah, Danni, Lor, and Tally? They were supposed to be watching this place."  
  
"Danni and Lilah went to the food court, and I don't know where Tally and Lor are." Ron said. He gestured to her feet hanging in the air. "How are you doing that?"  
  
"I'm part vampire, part elf. It's a gift." She whipped around as a jet of silvery light sliced her cheek open. She faced the monster. "Ah this is why you needed help. Well, this can be remedied." She raised the bow and loaded an arrow. The tip was gold and silver, and the rest was entirely bronze. "Namir, I told you last time, go find your litter box like a good kitty and stay there!" She let the arrow fly and it connected with the monster. It gave a piercing howl and disappeared.  
  
Torrance smiled, shook her head and slowly drifted to Harry and Ron. "Well, shall we find the others? I have some news for them." She walked off, leaving Harry and Ron to sort out the past nine minutes in their heads.  
  
~~~**~~~  
  
"What do you mean by 'They're coming back'?" Hermione said glancing around the food court.  
  
"They as in the Undria'im. They attacked here, and they don't seem to be finished. All we can to is wait for them and hope for the best." Danni said.  
  
"And hope that the blasted medic's get here before most of these people die." Lilah said hoisting the little girl into her arms and stanging to pace around the food court.  
  
Soon enough, the little girl woke up. She looked up at the girl who held her and stared. "You helped me."  
  
"Yes, I did, and so did they." She pointed to Hermione and Danni who waved in a friendly manner.  
  
The girl turned to look at them, then looked back at Lilah. "Who are you?"  
  
"Delilah Farstone, but you can call me Lilah. Those are my friends Danni Higgins and Hermione Granger."  
  
The little girl nodded and looked around. She looked so forlorn for such a young age.  
  
Lilah asked her, "What's your name?"  
  
The little girl looked back to Lilah with empty eyes. "Wendy Gunther." She said softly.  
  
Lilah looked surprised. "Gunther? As in Stephanie Gunther?"  
  
Stephanie Gunther had become famous in the past three years as a celebrity clothing designer. In the past year she had been working on making her designs available to the public. She had opened a store in that very mall only a month before. She had a daughter, but her husband was dead, as were the rest of her relations, and now, so was she.  
  
Wendy nodded. "My mummy owned a store here, we were only coming to see how they were doing, we weren't going to stay long, but then." Her voice trailed off and she shivered uncontrollably.  
  
Lilah looked to Hermione and Danni who were both on the verge of crying. "How old are you?" She asked.  
  
"Mummy says I'm this many." She held up four fingers and a thumb, then reached up with her other hand and folded her thumb halfway. "She says I only get half of this one because I'm not five yet." She looked around the waste of the food court. "Where's my mummy?" Her eyes locked on the prone figure of the blonde woman. "She's dead isn't she?"  
  
Lilah nodded sadly, but didn't say anything.  
  
"Oh." Wendy nodded forlornly and rested her head on Lilah's shoulder. "Lilah?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Can I stay with you? I don't want to see that mean man again."  
  
"What mean man?" Lilah asked urgently.  
  
Wendy shook her head and buried it between Lilah's neck and shoulder. For a moment, Lilah was reminded of another small girl of the same age.  
  
Danni walked up and put a reassuring hand on Wendy's back. "Wendy, we need you to tell us about this man. Did he kill your mother and all these people?"  
  
The child nodded, but didn't say anything.  
  
Danni looked up helplessly at Lilah who shrugged. "Where did he go?"  
  
Wendy pointed up to the roof where a large hole was made in the skylights.  
  
"Well, that explains the hole then."  
  
~~~**~~~  
  
Torrance, Harry, and Ron encountered Tally, Lor, Seamus, and Dean a few minutes later. They conversed about what they had found, then continued on.  
  
The group was silent for a moment, then Tally and Lor were whispering fiercly about who should ask Torrance about her sister. Finally Lor gave up and tapped the other girl on he shoulder.  
  
"What?" Asked Torrance without looking around.  
  
"How is Choral?"  
  
"Dying."  
  
"We know that, but how was she today?"  
  
"She figured it out, and the medics changed her date."  
  
"Longer or shorter?"  
  
"Shorted. much shorter."  
  
'How shorter?"  
  
"Next Friday or before."  
  
"Oh Torrance, I'm so sorry." Lor made to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder, but the other girl shrugged her off. She kept walking on silently, her boots clacking on the ground.  
  
Seamus looked after her, then at Tally and Lor. "What's up with her?"  
  
"Her little sister's dying. The medics think it's tuberculosis, but it's got other symptoms that are confusing them. We think it's because of her heritage, but no one's sure." Tally said. "She's lost both parents, both brothers, and a grandmother, and now her little sister is dying too."  
  
"I know how she feels." Ron said thinking about his own dead siblings, three brothers and a sister. "I lost four of my siblings in the war."  
  
"Ron, we don't really know what happened to Ginny." Harry said softly. He didn't want to accept her death, and probably never would.  
  
"She's dead Harry, face it." Ron turned and followed Torrance.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*  
  
A/N: I know, it was REALLY lame, but the next one will be better, I promise! 


	5. This is really chapter 4 titled: The Nor...

  
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A/N: Holy crud! I haven't updated since… like… ummmmmmmmm…. errr…. Hmmm….   
  
Now, this isn't full proof, but I tried my best, and I may re-update this later this weekend.   
  
Summary: You all should know this by now, but…   
  
It's four years after the gang graduates from Hogwarts and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean are working with a few famous American aurors trying to earn a living. They are taking a break from work when they happen to literally bump into four teenage American girls. The boys quickly make friends with them in hopes of getting better aquainted with Los Angeles, but there is some thing slightly odd about those girls……   
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The characters that you don't know, mostly the people not from Hogwarts, are owned by me, though the people they are based off of are real. Every character in this story is based on someone I know and even some people a few of the readers know.   
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~~**~~   
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It's A War   
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~~**~~   
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The Northern Lights of Magic   
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~~**~~

  
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Harry glared silently at Ron's retreating back.   
  
Dean moved to put a hand on his shoulder, but Harry waved him away. "She's _not_ dead." He said forcefully.   
  
"Maybe she is and maybe she isn't, but Harry, it's time we let her go." Dean said.   
  
Harry gave him a hard, calculating stare then walked off after Ron.   
  
The group was silent before Tally spoke up. "Who are y'all talkin bout?"   
  
Dean took a deep breath, not really wanting to dredge up past memories, but spoke anyway. "About six years ago, in the middle of the war, Ron's sister- Ginny- disappeared. Along with he went his archenemy Draco Malfoy. Her and Harry had been dating and it had just gotten serious. He was really messed up after it happened."   
  
Tally looked down at her hands. "I'm sorry I brought it up."   
  
Seamus grunted though it sounded more like, "You'd better be."   
  
Tally glared at him and tired not to loose her temper. "Look I _said_ I was sorry, I'm not _tryin'_ to start anythin' I of all people know what it's like to loose someone, so don't go getting all tiffy with me and you don't even know what you're talkin about." She snapped. Her voice hitched and she glared harder, then stormed off.   
  
"Now look what you did." Lor said running off after her.   
  
Seamus grunted and walked off leaving Dean to think about how odd this whole situation was. They just met five extremely odd girls who seemed to know more about what was going on than they did and something big and hairy was lying dead, thanks no doubt to that girl dressed in black…   
  
He shrugged dismissing it for later thought and started down the hallway.   
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The small group arrived haphazardly at what would have been a welcoming food court, but at the moment, it was more of a graveyard.   
  
Danni, Hermione, and Torrance were conversing in quiet voices while Harry and Ron listened in.   
  
They could just see Lilah's head poking up over a banister, she appeared to be having a conversation with a man with a pained expression and another smaller person standing by her side.   
  
Tally and Lor looked at each other with knowing glances, then went to investigate.   
  
The person standing next to Lilah turned out to be a small girl. She had long curly brown hair and deep brown eyes that seemed to draw you in.   
  
Lor and tally looked at Lilah. "I see there is another addition to the Farstone brood then?"   
  
Lilah whirled around on her knees and faced her friends. "Oh, hi." She shot a look at the child and smiled sadly. "Yeah." She placed a hand on the child's shoulder and gave it an encouraging squeeze. "Lor, Tally, meet Winifred Gunther. Her mother is with the dead. She'll be coming back to the manor with us."   
  
Lor frowned and scratched the bridge of her nose. "Gunther…Gunther…where have I heard that before?"   
  
"Sarah Gunther: Fashion Designer. She just opened that new store in the northern end." Tally smiled at the girl.   
  
Wendy nodded and turned back to the dying man on the floor. He looked frightened and pained- like he was facing the end of his life. "It's okay." She said patting his hand in a childlike manner. "Lilah will heal you."   
  
Lilah turned from the scene and whispered to her friends. "She doesn't know that I can't heal him. I tried telling her, but she won't listen she keeps insisting that I can heal him. He's got internal bleeding in several places and a mild concussion. I can heal the concussion, but my training isn't enough to heal the bleeding. Besides, I can only heal magical wounds and that was done with a dagger. I have to tell him." She whipped her hands on her pants smearing blood on the white jeans. Turning to the man she whispered some words to him and patted his arm. Then she looked at Wendy and placed a consoling arm on the young girl's shoulder. "Wendy, I don't think I can heal him… he is all ready half dead… the angels are calling him…"   
  
"_No_!" Said the little girl desperately. "You can save him! You just have to try! I'll help you!" The young girl grabbed Lilah's hands and placed them on the man's heart and covered them with her own small palms. Lilah tired to pull back in surprise, but the pull of magic was so strong she was fool to try and resist. A white bolt of magical energy shot out of Wendy's hands and surrounded Lilah's in white gloves of light. The blue stone on her wrist began to pulse changing colors like a strobe light, faster and faster…   
  
Lilah's eyes widened as she watched what was happening, knowing faintly what was going on.   
  
Power began to generate from Lilah's white-gloved hands and shots of light shot out from her in all directions. The first struck a chair blowing it into a thousand pieces. Then a table was hit, then a planter next to Tally who shrieked and jumped behind Lor.   
  
Lor shoved her behind another planter and shouted, "EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" Then she jumped behind the planter with Tally.   
  
Everyone else took cover as the shots of light multiplied and raced out of Lilah's hands quicker than before.   
  
Suddenly, there was a loud scream as the pillar Hermione was hiding behind was blown to pieces. Another stream of light followed it and sank into her chest.   
  
Time seemed to slow down as Hermione stared in shock at her chest. Then her eyes rolled back into her head and she slumped to the floor.   
  
"HERMIONE!" Ron made to run to her, but Harry and Dean held him back.   
  
"Ron no! You'll get hit too, then you won't be able to help her!"   
  
Ron froze and stared at Hermione.   
  
Yet, as this was going on, the lights continued to shoot out of Lilah and Wendy's clasped hands. They brightened and shot faster streaming lights across the room blowing objects to dust as they made contact.   
  
One particularly bright light shot from their hands and bounced off a window heading straight for Lilah. As it struck her, the lights stopped spewing from their hands and the ones in the air froze and hung mid-flight.   
  
Lilah's face was frozen in an expression of shock, but she made no sound. Her eyes rolled back and she too slumped on the floor. Her hands slid limply from Wendy's and hit the floor with a _*thump*._   
  
Wendy stumbled back from Lilah and sat heavily on the floor sighing deeply. A sense of loss filled her eyes and a tear trickled down her face.   
  
Everyone was silent for a moment, then they all acted at once. Tally and Lor grabbed Wendy and drug her away checking her for injuries and inspecting her still glowing hands. Then Danni apparated away with Lilah.   
  
Harry, Dean, Seamus and Ron rushed to Hermione.   
  
"We need to get her to a hospital!" Ron said. He prepared to apparate, but Torrance stopped him.   
  
"No, if you take her to a hospital questions will be asked because they won't be able to heal her, even at St. Mungo's."   
  
"Then where do we take her?"   
  
"To LunaSoleil." She turned from them and faced Tally and Lor. "Tally, You take Hermione, Lor take the girl, I'll get the boys there. Send some of the others back to get the cars and clean up the carnage. Also, get Vaughn if Danni hasn't sent someone all ready and send him to the both of them."   
  
Both girls nodded and departed with sharp pops.   
  
Torrance turned back to the British boys. "I don't know how you all got mixed up in this mess, but you're deep in it now…"   
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked.   
  
"I'm not too sure. I don't know half of it myself, and I definitely don't understand what happened just now, though I know someone who will be willing to tell you. I hope she can sort this all out. Now stand still, If you move, I can guarantee that you will feel an adequate amount of pain and be dead before we reach our destination."   
  
Before anyone could ask anymore questions, they were surrounded by a thick black fog that exuded from Torrance and enveloped them all.   
  
The next thing they knew, they were standing in a crowded foyer of a large manor.   
  
They looked around slightly confused until Torrance herded them up a flight of stairs and into a near-by study. The room was octagon shaped with one side longer than the other containing a life size portrait of twenty-two people, half men and half women. Five of the girls looked fairly familiar and one looked all too familiar. Old black and white photos of the same people sat on the shelves, but most were crowded with books. The rest of the walls not covered with books were covered with elaborate stained glass windows.   
  
But what caught the eyes of the four boys was a couple sitting at a table in the center of the room. One had shockingly blonde hair and the other had hair of a deep blood red.   
  
After one stunned moment, only Ron's voice was heard.   
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"**GINNY? MALFOY?**"   
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~~~**~~~   
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A/N: Okay, I KNOW that royally sucked, so none of you have to say it, but I had to get them out of that mall. The longer they stayed there the higher this brick wall around my ideas went and I was beginning to loose sight of the top… So they left… And I know that it is slightly shorter than what I usually write, but this is what it is…   
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Next Chapter:   
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- Why is Ginny at LunaSoleil?   
- Why is she with Draco?   
- Where did Hermione and Lilah disappear to?   
- And the best question of all, what the HELL just happened?   
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Will up date later today, maybe tomorrow morning…   
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	6. chappie 5 The Explaining Begins

  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Holy crud! I haven't updated since… like… ummmmmmmmm…. errr…. Hmmm….   
  
Now, this isn't full proof, but I tried my best, and I may re-update this later this weekend.   
  
Summary: You all should know this by now, but…   
  
It's four years after the gang graduates from Hogwarts and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean are working with a few famous American aurors trying to earn a living. They are taking a break from work when they happen to literally bump into four teenage American girls. The boys quickly make friends with them in hopes of getting better aquainted with Los Angeles, but there is some thing slightly odd about those girls……   
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The characters that you don't know, mostly the people not from Hogwarts, are owned by me, though the people they are based off of are real. Every character in this story is based on someone I know and even some people a few of the readers know.   
  
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It's A War   
  
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The Explaining Begins   
  
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The red-headed girl and the young blonde boy didn't seem to hear him as books flew off the shelves and landed on the table before them with the pages flipping all ready, turned by invisible hands.   
  
The girl reached for the nearest book and waited while it finished turning. She looked up at the boy and said something, but her words were lost in the sound of the pages. However, he seemed to hear her just fine and responded.   
  
Ron gaped at the both of them and Harry gaped at Ginny. He made to move toward her, but Torrance stopped him. "Wait they won't be able to hear or see you." She waved a hand at the couple and the pages suddenly stopped turning.   
  
The girl and boy glanced up at each other, then at the door where the new group still stood. The girl gave a sort of surprised shriek and flung herself at Ron.   
  
"RON!!!" For a moment she blubbered incoherently, then she buried her head in his neck and sobbed.   
  
Unable, or unwilling to detach the young girl from his neck, Ron smiled, he had his sister back.   
  
Harry stared in awe at the small red-head. He knew she was alive, but what about them? What about their relationship? His mind went off in a whirlwind of questions brought on by the sudden reappearance of the red-head. But that all ended when the blonde boy spoke.   
  
"Really Red. I thought you'd stopped crying years ago." HE said folding his arms across his chest and leaning against a nearby bookshelf.   
  
"Shuddup Draco." Came the tearful reply. "I have a right to cry when I see my favorite brother after five years of not seeing anything of the outside world." She hugged him a bit tighter and said, "It's good to see you bro, I missed you." She then jumped from his arms and back toward Draco. "So what are y'all doing here?" She said avoiding looking at anyone save her brother.   
  
Harry noticed how she wasn't looking at him and frowned. She hadn't even acknowledged his presence yet. Hello?! He thought. This is your boyfriend over here! He wondered when she had started to call Malfoy "Draco". He tuned back into the conversation just as Ron responded to Ginny's question.   
  
"…And then the light hit Hermione and we brought her here. Lilah got hit too."   
  
Ginny blinked twice then shot a weird look at Draco who glanced worriedly at her, then swept from the room.   
  
The boys watched him go, then turned back to Ginny. "What was that all about?" Seamus asked.   
  
Ginny's gaze flickered to him and his eyes widened. For a moment he could have sworn that her eyes had turned a misty white, butt hen she blinked and they were brown again. He shook his head dismissing it as his imagination and waited for her to respond.   
  
Ginny looked at Torrance and her eyes flickered in color again, but this time they were blue, then brown again. "It's nothing, he just had to check on something…" She titled her head a fraction to the left as she looked at Torrance.   
  
The young vampire blinked and nodded, then turned away from the group. "If you'll excuse me boys, I have some business to attend to." Like calling the whole Circle together… "Ginny will direct you to where Hermione is." She gave Ginny a slight bow, then exited the room.   
  
Harry had never looked away from Ginny's face and when she finally looked at him he offered her a small smile, but her eyes slid over him like he wasn't even there. He frowned and continued to stare.   
  
She walked past them to the door, her formal robes swishing over their feet as she walked by. "If you will follow me, I'll take you to Hermione, she should be waking up by now." She walked out of the door and into the hall.   
  
They followed her just as a bell rang somewhere in the depths of the manor. (But now that they thought about it, is was more of a castle, it was even bigger than Hogwarts!) As the bell stopped ringing, young people spilled into the hallway talking loudly. A scuffle broke out down the hall a ways and Ginny walked calmly towards it. "MACLAUGHLIN! GIBBERS! Break it up! Now!" She shouted. When the fighting continued, she raised a hand and both boys flew to opposite sides of the hallway. "I said break it up." She said calmly. She grabbed both of them by their collars and threw them at the feet of a near-by teacher. "Detention, for the both of you, I want to see the two of you in my office directly after dinner." To the teacher she said, "Andrew, could you take care of them for me? I'm on my way to a meeting in the Outer Quarters."   
  
"Sure Virginia, they'll be in my class next." He grabbed the boys and led them off.   
  
Ginny thanked him and straightened her robes, patted her hair down and began walking again. The boys stared after her for a minute amazed at the power she wielded, then they scurried after her.   
  
A short ways down the corridor she began to speak. "I'm sure you're all wondering what in all hells I'm doing here, and with Draco Malfoy of all people, so I'll tell you. After we arrived here at LunaSoleil, Draco and I became the apprentices of some of the teachers. Shortly afterward we were deemed worthy of the right to teach and teachers we became. I teach the Control class and Draco teaches The History of Power and Its Sources."   
  
"So this is a school?" Dean asked eyeing a group of giggling girls.   
  
"Yes, and no. LunaSoleil is a school a shelter, a hospital and a refuge for those children that have have lost their parents to the Undria'im. The children are given a place they can call home, and an education." She paused to open a door and lead them into another hallway. "The wars of this country have become to great to stall and more and more deaths are occurring. LunaSoleil was built by Lord Charles Orion Weston with the hopes that children with special gifts, who lost their parents, would have a refuge. Then Lilah began to bring in those who were just plain orphans thanks to the Undria'im and, well, we expanded from there to the booming community we are now. There are over a thousand students and over a hundred teachers. There are eighteen different houses and eighteen different liecrandle teams. We've had to expand the manor so many times and add on so many rooms that the maps from when it was first build don't even apply anymore. LunaSoleil itself is probably seven times as large as Hogwarts and we've had to fraction the eating times."   
  
"If a growing population is such a problem, what about the other wizarding schools?" Asked Seamus.   
  
They passed a group of seven-year-olds playing hopscotch and Ginny smiled at them. "Not everyone here is a witch or wizard. Some don't have powers at all while others…" Her voice trailed off as they passed a small girl sitting on a windowsill in a pile of glass shards. As they watched, the shards flew into the air, fitted themselves back together and set themselves back into the window creating a brand new window. Ginny smiled at the girl before the child went running off then continued walking. "That young girl is Hannah St. Claire. She's nine years old, from New Orleans, lost her parents to the Undria'im when she was five. But, she's muggle."   
  
"But if she's muggle, how could she do that whole window thing?" Seamus asked.   
  
This is turning into a history lesson…I thought that was Draco's job… Ginny thought. "Muggles have their own magic." She said with a slight smile. "Some of them are blessed with the gifts of the Old Thalanderish people. Old Thalanderia is a world unlike our own where magic and monarchies hold reign over the people. From the research we've done it appears that they seem to be trapped in a King Arthur era. Back when our times were parallel, more than half of their "cahrin", or their wizards or magicians fled their world and a terrible evil and came here. They were seen as blessings from the gods and treated like kings. But as you should know, the influence of the White Christians was everywhere in Britannia, so they again fled the wrath of an enemy and migrated to the Americas and Australia and New Zealand, though some went to Asia and the farther reaches of Europe. They settled here and created a government of their own. It was a task emmersing themselves in the culture of the pilgrims when they first arrived, but they succeeded and the tale fades from there."   
  
"Who did their magic survive so many years?" Asked Dean.   
  
"The magic of the cahrin is an ancient one. It was given to them by the gods of their world in the guise of magic stones, each with it's own name. They formed a group called the Circle of Fire that would find out a way to preserve their magic if the time came to use the power again. The magic of thirty of the gods of the cahrin were set into the magic stones so that the magic could be called upon by those the gods deemed worthy. The power of the earth from Elanère and Banyan, the power of water from Dalit and Visola. Fire from Nuria and Adish, moonlight from Aysel and Bade, starlight from Sidra and Astin. The leaders of battle Caden and Pallaton, Toril and Anakin. The god and goddess of the wild beasts Karria and Griffin. The gift of healing from Althea and Galen, the gift of calling forth flames from Aideen and Blaze. The power of the dragon and the virgin from Kaida, Naiara and Orinda. And an all-powerful force from Amandla, Charisma, Devi, Zalika, Eyad, and Medwin. Of thirty Mage Stones left by the cahrin, eight were destroyed by people afraid of their powers, yet twenty-two escaped the fate of their brothers." She pulled a chain from around her neck revealing a purple and white stone. "This is Naiara, the virgin of the gods. It was presented to me in the forbidden forest outside of Hogwarts while I was searching for ashwinder eggs and billywigs." She placed the chain back under her robes and continued walking. "However, the rest of the magic comes later. The preserved magic of the cahrin themselves came in the form of a spell cast by Trondir the Great, the last of the cahrin. It was one of his more extraordinary feats. Every year, ten children bearing the magic are born. But it is not theirs to keep. Before age ten, they must give up the gift, giving it to someone they deemed worthy of it. But why children you may wonder. It's because children know a lot more that we give them credit for, especially babies. They know who is trust worthy and who is not they are perfect for giving the gifts."   
  
"I'm confused, so how did you and Malfoy get yours?" Harry asked.   
  
"Do y'all remember General Hawkins's daughter? Stephie?"   
  
"Yeah."   
  
"Well, one day, Draco and I were supposed to be watching her when we started fighting and she went 'You'll be perfect, oh they'll be so happy!' Then she holds up her hands and this white light surrounds us and the next thing I knew I was here under the care of one Lilah Farstone and my own little Danika."   
  
"How is she?" Asked Ron. He hadn't seen his favorite niece in so long he almost forgot that she was there. The poor thing was so quiet half the time she seemed to just float from place to place.   
  
"Just lovely and so happy now. Turns out that she had the giving gift. Most children who are going to give it away don't talk much or at all until they give it away. After Danika got rid of it she was a new kid. She was literally bouncing off the walls with speech. Draco said she was like a human fizzing whizby." Ginny smiled at the thought of her daughter literally bouncing off the walls.   
  
"Why didn't you ever just send an owl and tell us you were here?" Ron said. "We were worried sick, mum and dad thought you were dead and most others thought you and Draco had turned tail on us and joined the death eaters."   
  
"Owls can be intercepted Ron, and the reestablishment of the Circle must remain a complete secret! Which means that now that you are here, no one must know!" She looked at them frantically. "No one must know or all of our plans will be ruined!"   
  
They al nodded and she sighed in relief. "Good. I was hoping you'd understand."   
  
Dean shook his head and said "I'm trying to, but it's a bit much to take in, in one day."   
  
"I know Dean, but if you have any questions, ask away."   
  
Harry scratched his nose. "What about these wars you were talking about. Where did those come from?"   
  
Ginny's eyes clouded over with hurt and anger and when she spoke her voice was filled with anger and passion. "These wars have everything to do with darkness and every evil out there. You witnessed some of it today. When the cahrin fled Old Thalanderia, they were fleeing a world corrupt with darkness. An ancient evil called the Undria'im had infiltrated their lands and were terrorizing the people running mass murderings and setting whole towns afire. So the cahrin fled and came here where the taint of the Undria'im did not reach. However, the evil followed them here and began a war of magic that has continued since. Like I said earlier, the cahrin settled mainly here in the Americas, in Australia and remote parts of Europe and Asia. The war is not as obvious back home or in Asia. Minor slips in temperature and a failing environment are from the multitude of magic building. But here and in Australia the war is common knowledge. People not involved think the battles are some sort of reoccurring scientific phenomena. Flickering lights with no apparent source, changes in organic growth, and all sorts of things. The Northern Lights? That was an after effect of one of the battles. The last one almost made another Niagara falls on the border of New Mexico, I should know, it was kind of my fault…" She paused to open yet another and lead them up a set of stairs. At the top was yet another corridor. The students here were older, more staid and mature.   
  
One tall blonde girl rushed up to Ginny. Tow large boys with black hair and brown eyes stood behind her. "Professor, the research you asked me to do is on your desk in the purple folder, everything you wanted is there. Matt and Brian helped, so they should get credit too." She said indicating the boys behind her.   
  
Ginny smiled. "Thank you Charli, and the boys will get credit also." The girl smiled and walked off down the corridor. As the group walked in the opposite direction, the hallway gradually cleared of students gone to their rooms until dinner. "That girl is Charlene Trine."   
  
"The minister's daughter?!" Dean said.   
  
"The one and only girl of eight children. I really connect with her." She smirked at Ron and he smacked her arm. She only smirked and Ron shrieked like a girl as something knocked him down, but when he stood up with wand drawn, nothing was there. Suddenly he was on the floor again and couldn't figure out why.   
  
Harry, Dean and Seamus were laughing uproariously and Ginny stood smirking with her arms crossed. "Don't mess with Gin." She said. Ron was pulled into the air and hung upside down infront of Ginny.   
  
"I'm sorry Gin! Please don't hurt me!" He pleaded in a squeaky voice. Seamus and Dean were leaning on each other for support and Harry was rolling on the floor clutching his stomach.   
  
Someone walked along the hall, probably another teacher and noticed all the commotion. He walked up behind Ginny and tapped her shoulder. "Ginny, put him down."   
  
Ginny paled and set Ron down on his feet she turned to the man with a guilty expression. "Look, Blake, we were just playing around… He's my brother…"   
  
"…"   
  
"Oh fine!" She snapped. She swung around to Ron and snapped. "I'm sorry I used my powers to scare you and it'll never happen again and if it does you have my permission to kick me extremely hard and tell Blake, Master of all that is Fire so that he can kick me again for using my powers to scare someone." She swung around and glared at the man behind her. "Are you happy?"   
  
The group of boys was suddenly in awe of the newcomer who could shut Ginny up so quickly and bend her to their will.   
  
"Ecstatic." He said. "Now, would you care to tell me where my sister is?"   
  
"Ummm… Which one?" Ginny said wringing her hands nervously. Ron's mouth dropped open. Never in his life had he seen his sister act this way to someone when they weren't a certain Molly Weasley. She actually seemed afraid of him!   
  
"Don't play games with me Weasley, where is Lilah?"   
  
Ginny stared at the ceiling and rocked on her heels. "Uhhhhh… In a coma?"   
  
The man's face reddened. "Wong answer Virginia! You and Malfoy were supposed to be watching her! You knew she was going out today!"   
  
Ginny flinched and tried to apologize. "I know! But when Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus and Hermione showed up in the radar I tried not to go spare, but then I had a little wobbly and - and I was a real prat! I'm sorry!" She was almost in tears by now. Why does he ALWAYS do this to me! It's like he likes to make me cry! She thought with frustration.   
  
Blake stared at her in silence. "Okay, say that again, this time in coherent English."   
  
Dean stepped forward. "I think I can help you there mate." He cleared his throat. "She said that she freaked out when my friends and I showed up on "the radar", what ever that is, and had a tantrum and that she was a real fool and that she's sorry." He backed away and whispered "Aaannnnddd action!" Harry smacked him on his head and apologized for his friend.   
  
"Sorry about him, hasn't had his medication today. But really, Lilah should be fine. From what Ginny's told us, I can cotton on that it was just a mere power transfer from a young girl. Don't slag off at her just because she went a little mad." He said.   
  
"Is that all?" Blake asked looking at Ginny. When she nodded he shrugged and smiled. "Well, why didn't you just say so?! That's nothing!" He shrugged and walked off down the corridor.   
  
Ginny stared after him with her mouth open. "I just can't believe the nerve of that daft git sometimes!" She fumed. She shrugged it off and straightened up. Within moments it was like nothing even happened.   
  
She continued down the corridor with the boys shortly behind. "Do you have any other questions?" She asked turning a corner.   
  
"Yeah…" Said Seamus thinking back to five minutes before when he was going to ask a question… "Oh! I remember! You said that witches, wizards and muggles make up only a portion of the school population… So, what makes up the rest?"   
  
"Glad you asked. A large portion of the student body is made up of the lhim'as and halflings, another portion are shape shifters like Tonks, but on a higher scale, the others are misilanious races like vampires, some of the yenisim, elves, etc. we've even got a few werewolves here I think…"   
  
They reached a door with a combined sun and moon and Ginny said a couple of words in a different language and the door swung in to reveal a sort of common room. "This is the antechamber to the commons to the Outer Quarters. You can wait to see Hermione here. Before I go are there anymore questions?"   
  
"Yeah, who are the lhim'as and the halflings?" Dean asked.   
  
Ginny smiled. "I was hoping you would ask that." She walked t the corner and pulled a rope. A minute later there was a timid knock on the door and two sets of brown eyes partially hidden by shaggy strawberry blonde hair peered into the room. Ginny smiled and started speaking in French and succeeding in completely confusing her friends and brother. "_Entre mes fils. Ilya des gens qui je veux tu faites le connaissance._"* Two small boys walked in and hung onto Ginny's hands. She smiled at the, then looked back at her friends. "Guys, This is Aidan and Devon. They are three now, but by the time they are ten, Devon will have given up his gifts to someone he deems worthy and Aidan will have started his halfling training." She pulled back Aidan's shaggy hair and revealed two slightly pointed ears. "Devon is one of the lhim'as, they are the children that give their powers to others. The halflings have both elf powers and the powers of the cahrin. They are not necessarily of elf blood but they have the gifts, and they are blessed with the ancient magic at birth, unlike the rest of their kind who have to wait until someone chooses them for the gifts."   
  
"Wait a minute…" Dean said. "You lost me. How could a kid have elf powers and now be an elf?"   
  
"Elves are solitary creatures, yet they like to watch what goes on in our world and sometimes that even come here. They watch people for traits that they see in themselves and observe their charge's mate. If they think the union satisfactory, and if the timing is right, then they bless the child with the gifts."   
  
"What do you mean by timing?"   
  
"The elf can only give the gifts is they are preparing to pass into the Eternal Lands, their 'life after death'. If they find two people that they think will create the perfect child, they may make a match and help the relationship along."   
  
Aidan looked up at Ginny and spoke in French. "_Comme tu et papa? Ma s'appelle est le pareil, n'est pas?_"**   
  
The boys on the couch shot glances at each other not understanding.   
  
"_Oui Aidan. Mais tu ne leur dit rien._"*** Both boys nodded then she spoke in English again. "Why don't you and Devon go find your sisters and try and keep your father occupied, all right?"   
  
Aidan smiled brightly and grabbed his brother's arm. "_Oui._" They ran from the room and their footsteps faded down the hallway.   
  
"They're cute." Said Lor waking in the room from behind one of the curtains surrounding the room. She turned to the boys. "You can go see her now. Second door on your right through that curtain." She pointed back the way she came.   
  
They all jumped up at once and hurried to the curtain. Harry froze at the hanging cloth and looked back at Ginny. "Hey, don't you want to come see Herms?" He said.   
  
"I'll see her a dinner I suppose. But I've got some things that I need to take care of." She smiled and he shrugged ducking behind the curtain. After he disappeared, he smile fell into a slight frown.   
  
"They talked about you, you know…" Said Lor walking towards the bookshelf and removing her favorite. She walked towards the door also; she had a "friend" to meet.   
  
Ginny sighed and fiddled with the doorknob. "Thanks Lor, way to make a girl feel good about herself."   
  
Lor shrugged. "It's the truth, they thought you were dead."   
  
Ginny shook her head, but said nothing.   
  
Lor looked at her with an odd glance. "How long are you going to keep this up?" She asked. "He has to know sometime. You know, I thought Seamus was going to flay Tally alive when she asked about you. It's obvious that they missed you terribly."   
  
Ginny glared at her. "You didn't tell him anything did you?"   
  
"Acted as if I had no idea who Ginny Weasley was. It's your story to tell Gin, not mine. I just hope you do it soon, and try not to break the poor boy's heart." She said.   
  
"I wanted to do it earlier, but, this is going to sound terribly selfish, but…"   
  
Lor, always the keen one when it came to human nature saw the rest of the sentence written all over her face. "But you're afraid that they'll make you go back."   
  
"Yeah." She leaned against the doorknob and sighed. This seemed to be the moment for sighing. "I don't want to go back to England. I can't, there are just too many things keeping me here, the Circle, my responsibilities to you guys, to others, my hotel is blossoming… I just can't up and leave…"   
  
"They're not going to make you go back." Lor said.   
  
Ginny pushed herself up off the door and stormed to Lor in a whirl of purple silk. "How would you know? My brother is the most stubborn arse in the world, and Harry is still in love with me even though I've moved on!"   
  
"What about Dean and Seamus?"   
  
Ginny smiled. "Dean and Sea just want what's best for me. They only want me to be happy, they don't care what it is." Suddenly she turned frantic. "Lor, please don't say anything. If Harry finds out from someone other than me, he might kill him."   
  
"Did you talk to him yet?"   
  
"Who?"   
  
"HIM?"   
  
"Oh, yeah, right before they got here, um, he's agreed to stay remotely civil, though he's just itching to go at Harry, I know."   
  
"Well, give them time."   
  
"Yeah, I know, time heals all wounds…" Yeah right… I know from experience that that is in no way true.   
  
Lor smiled thinking the same thing. "Well, I'll see you later, got to go meet Demitri." She slipped from the room and Ginny followed shortly after intent on going to find someone she depended on in times like these.   
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-A/N: Okay, the scene with Lilah's brother was kind of sudden, I had a moment and I can hope that it never happened again, but honestly, this chapter kind of sucks, but I had to at least kind of explain what's going on, I don't even understand half of it!!!! But if you really got lost, email me at: greeNdragoN198@hotmail.com   
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-Well *sigh* review and tell me what you think.   
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-Here are the translations for the French…   
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-*_Entre les fils. Il ya des gens qui je veux tu faites le connaissance._- Enter boys, there are some men that I want you to meet.   
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- ** _Comme tu et papa? Ma s'appelle est le pareil, n'est pas?_- Like you and (Will be given at another time, say next chapter)? My name is the same right?   
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-*** _Oui Aidan. Mais tu ne leur dit rien._- Yea Aidan, but don't tell them anything.   
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	7. Welcomes and Confessions

  
  
  
  
  
  
A/N: Holy crud! I haven't updated since… like… ummmmmmmmm…. errr…. Hmmm….   
  
Now, this isn't full proof, but I tried my best, and I may re-update this later this weekend.   
  
Summary: You all should know this by now, but…   
  
It's four years after the gang graduates from Hogwarts and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean are working with a few famous American aurors trying to earn a living. They are taking a break from work when they happen to literally bump into four teenage American girls. The boys quickly make friends with them in hopes of getting better aquainted with Los Angeles, but there is some thing slightly odd about those girls……   
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The characters that you don't know, mostly the people not from Hogwarts, are owned by me, though the people they are based off of are real. Every character in this story is based on someone I know and even some people a few of the readers know.   
  
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It's A War   
  
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Welcomes and Confessions   
  
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The Eating Hall at LunaSoleil was roughly the size of four gyms placed side by side. Nine tables ran horizontally on each side of the room making it eighteen tables in all and a set of faculty tables at the head of the room for the many teachers. A large table that sat at the front of those held three large throne-like chairs. One was a shimmery purple, in the middle was the largest chair a dark midnight blue with inset stars and the last was a sea green. On top of each of the chairs perched an owl. On the purple chair was a gray owl, on the blue was a white owl, and on top of the green was a tawny.   
  
At dinner that night Hermione walked into the crowded hall leaning heavily on Ron's arm.   
  
"Are you sure that you want to do this?" He asked her, "We could always have something sent up."   
  
She shook her head. "If Lilah can do it, so can I." She looked over to where the girl in question was sitting surrounded by her siblings. Hermione made her way to the visitors' table and sat down next to Harry and Ron. "Hey, you guys said that Ginny was here… I haven't seen her…" She looked around the room.   
  
Two of the tables in the front of the room –one on each side- were dedicated to the constant visitors that the school was receiving. Each of the other tables had a banner over it showing what race or type of people sat there. Each different sect was like a family. They ate together, slept in the same dorms, and learned together.   
  
There were four tables in the front on the right side dedicated to the many young children that lived at LunaSoleil. Lilah and Danni sat at one of the tables with the kids. A very young baby was seated in Lilah's lap trying to pull her hair out and two young girls were seated on either side of her. Danni was in a somewhat similar state. A young child was standing in her lap proudly saying his abc's and another young boy that looked just like her was standing in his seat talking about how he had helped someone named "Dicy" put a puzzle together. Said the girl on Lilah's left opened her mouth and protested that "No, sissy, I did it all on my own. Lynde is lying again…" Lilah smiled at her sister, then the baby in her arms began wailing. She gave him his bottle and started to sing softly to him while Dicy and Lynde started a shouting match over their sisters.   
  
Hermione smiled at the scene and turned back to her table. She gave a frightened squeak and jumped when she saw someone's face very close to her own. The young girl pulled back and stared hard at Hermione. Then she turned and whispered something to a boy behind her.   
  
"Um… can I help you?" Hermione asked.   
  
"For give me, I'm Deirdre Farstone, Delilah's sister."   
  
"Delilah?"   
  
"Yes, she prefers Lilah, but I love messing with her head." The girl cracked a smile. "I just wanted to welcome you and your friends to LunaSoleil on behalf of the Anila."   
  
"The Annie-what?"   
  
"The Anila, it means children of the wind, we're the children of the Circle."   
  
"What Circle?"   
  
The girl frowned. "You might want to talk to my sister or brother very soon. I think it might help you understand some things." She said. Then she turned to the two people behind her and waved them forward. "This is Devi Higgins, Lord of the Lhim'as and Erimentha Knaves, Lady of the Halflings. We've been given our titles as we are the oldest of our kind here at the school."   
  
Hermione nodded at them with a warm smile. "That's lovely." She said slightly lost. Suddenly something in her head clicked. "Do any of you know a Ginny Weasley? The boys mentioned something about seeing her earlier today, but I must have missed her."   
  
"The professor? Yes, she teaches us." Deirdre looked around. "She is over there with Professor Malfoy."   
  
All of the foreign visitors swung around in their seats and saw Ginny with Aidan in her lap and Draco with Devon in his, and there were two small girls with bright red hair seated on either side of them scowling at each other. Ginny looked and waved and Aidan waved elaborately almost whacking Ginny in the face. Draco chuckled and went back to talking quietly with her.   
  
Suddenly a door behind the high table opened and the hall went quiet. A tall woman with dark purple robes walked gracefully onto the dais and stood before her chair the purple one. Everyone in the hall stood and Hermione and her friends hastily followed. The woman smiled at everyone with a warm expression and sat gracefully. Her brown blonde hair was twisted up into a bun on the back of her head and her face looked exotic, yet natural. After she sat a man walked in who looked to be in his early thirties. He stood in front of his chair and looked out into the crowd. His hair was pitch black and if you looked close enough, you would see the golden sparks in his silvery eyes. He sat with out a word in the green chair.   
  
The door was filled yet again with a tall wide frame of a man in his late fifties. He walked calmly to the dais and stood before the blue chair and looked out into the crown with a smile he sat down and the rest of the students followed. Held up his hands and spoke. "I would like to begin the evening with a special welcome to five very special people. Would our guests please stand?" He said looking straight at the group.   
  
They stood and everyone stared.   
  
"Let's give a warm welcome to Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas." He clapped and soon the entire room was filled with polite clapping. It was more than obvious that no one knew who they were. Their fame seemed secluded to Europe.   
  
Deirdre whispered over the clapping. "Not many in the American Wizarding communities are familiar with the wars in your country. Only the wars in our own."   
  
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Harry stopped walking as he saw Ginny just up ahead talking to Malfoy once again. The young boys hung onto her hands and the two redheaded girls were clinging to Malfoy.   
  
Harry turned to his friends and said, "Guys, I'll meet up with you later, I want to talk to Ginny…" He ran to catch up with her and stopped next to her. "Hey Ginny, could we talk?" He said looking pointedly at Malfoy.   
  
The blonde raised one perfect eyebrow and stared at the-boy-who-lived. With out looking at Ginny he spoke. "Go ahead Ginny, I'll take the kids." He began to walk away and Aidan ran after him, but Devon clung onto Ginny's hand not willing to let go.   
  
Ginny kneeled next to him and smoothed his hair down in a motherly gesture. "Devvi, va avec son père. Je serai arrière." *   
  
The little boy opened his mouth and pleaded. "Mais maman, vous avez promis…"   
  
"Je pense mon fils, je pense, mais aller! Vite! Je serai arrière." She said pushing him along. He looked back over his shoulder and looked at Harry, then ran off after his brother.   
  
Ginny smiled at his retreating form and turned to Harry. "Well, what can I do for you Harry? I only have a minute. I've got to get to my office and assign a weeks worth of detentions to two trouble makers, then make it back to my rooms in time to read Devon to sleep." She said beginning to walk down the hallway at a slow but steady pace.   
  
Harry followed and hesitated before speaking. "I- I missed you Ginny, you couldn't know how much…" He placed a gentle hand on her cheek, but she pulled away.   
  
Ginny smiled at him. "I missed you too Harry… but whatever there was between us is… gone…"   
  
Harry turned to her with an unreadable expression. "What do you mean?"   
  
Ginny sighed and started to fiddle with a necklace around her neck. "Harry, what I am about to tell you may shock and hurt you, but it's the truth… When I first arrived here at LunaSoleil, I cried for you every night. I was so afraid that you would die in the war or that you would get hurt and that I would be able to do nothing to stop it. I felt so alone and I went into a sort of depressed stage. For a while I didn't speak, I went mute not saying a word. Then Draco presented himself as a friend and we grew closer. After a while, almost six months, I realized that my love for you was dieing and I was frightened." She stared off ahead of them and had a dazed expression. "How could I not love you anymore? You had been everything I ever wanted… funny, caring, respectful, gentle and kind… but there was just something missing that I couldn't name… After about a week, I realized that I didn't love you anymore, but only thought of you as a friend, a brother… By then, Draco and I had become very close and I confided in him my worries about you. He was understanding and listened to me... The next day, I realized that I had some feelings for him, but I didn't say anything."   
  
Harry listened not liking where this was going.   
  
Ginny continued unaware of how Harry felt. "It was a while before anything happened, then a couple of our students noticed where things were going between us and helped things along…"   
  
"What did they do?" Harry asked trying to be calm.   
  
"They locked us in a deserted classroom." She sand sniggering. "Deirdre, Erimentha and Devi are the worse troublemakers that I have ever taught. They may put on an elegant front for meetings and such, but those three are worse that Fred and George." She chuckled and continued. "From then on, we were inseparable. We were married before the year was up. That was five years ago…"   
  
Her voice faded from his mind. His girlfriend who he hadn't seen for six, going on seven years now had married someone else… it had to be a lie, that bastard Malfoy must have spelled her or something…   
  
Harry grabbed Ginny and spun her to face him. She shrieked at the sudden movement and frowned at him.   
  
"He's put a spell on you!" Harry said forcefully. He grabbed his wand and tapped her forehead saying "Finite Incantatum." But she just continued frowning at him.   
  
"Harry, let me go." She said trying to extract herself from his arms.   
  
"No! It's a lie!"   
  
"It's not a lie Harry! I love him, and I trust him!" She said.   
  
"How can you trust a death eater?" He whispered harshly.   
  
"He's not a death eater Harry, he doesn't have the mark! He never wanted to join them and never did!"   
  
"But he's still evil!"   
  
"Draco is not evil." Ginny said finally breaking away. "He may be an absolute ass sometimes, but he's not evil." She backed away from him.   
  
Something in Harry's head clicked then. "The boys, Aidan and Devon, who are they?"   
  
"They're my sons, Draco's sons."   
  
"And the girls?"   
  
"My daughters, Peyton is four and Elia is five. Randi is around here somewhere, most likely with those friends of hers, she's ten now."   
  
Harry's eyes filled with sadness and he looked at Ginny with an empty expression. "I only have one question, why?"   
  
Ginny smiled sympathetically at him. "In truth, I don't really think I loved you Harry, I know I said that I did, but it was mere infatuation, nothing else… When I came here, I fell in love, sometimes I still can't believe it, but it happened…" She placed a hand on his shoulder, but he jerked away. She sighed and turned to walk to her office. "I'm sorry Harry…" Then she was gone.   
  
Harry stood still, then walked to the Outer Quarters with his mind filled with questions. Not watching where he was going, Harry ran into something, or rather someone very small and knocked them over.   
  
"Oh, I'm sorry…" He said helping them up.   
  
It was a small girl with familiar blue-black hair as she pushed the long curly tresses out of her eyes, familiar brandy-wine eyes were revealed. She squealed and hugged him tightly. "Uncle Harry! Mother said you were here! I didn't believe her until dinner when I saw you and uncle Ron and aunt Hermione, but wow! It's lovely to see you!" Randi said bouncing on the balls of her feet.   
  
If there was one thing aside from a Weasley married to a Malfoy that Harry never thought he'd see was an ecstatically happy Randilyn Weasley-Riddle. She squeezed him around his middle then started to drag him somewhere.   
  
"You have no idea how happy I am to see someone civilized! I mean, I love my sisters to pieces, but they're always fighting! And the boys are lovely, but they're just so quiet! Father says it's just their nature and that they'll most likely always be that way, but lord, it's freaky!" She babbled on and on about other things and continued to lead him somewhere.   
  
Harry thought hard, "Father" must be Malfoy. He thought angrily. But his anger cooled as he looked down at the young girl latched onto his hand. She had been the product of Ginny's time under Tom Riddle's spell and had stayed hidden until her mother's sixth year when her safe house was attacked. The five-year-old Randi had gone to Hogwarts then and remained under the protection of Dumbledore. Ginny confessed that the weekends she went missing were to see her and that the months in the summer when she virtually fell off the face of the earth were visits to the safe house. He had connected with the little girl during his seventh year and had become a type of father figure to her. That is, until Ginny had disappeared along with her daughter and Malfoy. It seems that his father status had been stolen. He tuned back into Randi's babbling.   
  
"…And then I told her that she was acting like a wet little four-year-old and then we got into this gigundi row and she threw her rucksack at me so I threw one of my kickers at her and called her grotty then she went mad and started gassing off about how I was a lying cheat and how I'd have poxy spots before the year was out so I called her a name that made mum smack my head. I was so mad I dumped my spaggy bol in the little git's head…It was absolutely brill…noodles were everywhere and the sauce was covering her plaits and bunches… Then mum smacked me again said I had to apologize. I did, and the weird thing is, we've been best mates ever since." (((((Translation: …And then I told her that she was acting like a naïve little four-year-old and we got into this huge fight and she threw her backpack at me and I threw one of my sneakers at her and called her gross and then she went crazy talking about how I was a lying cheat and how I'd have disgusting zits before the year was out so I called her a name that made mum smack my head. I was so mad I dumped my spaghetti on the little jerk's head…It was absolutely brilliant… noodles were everywhere and the sauce was covering her braids and pigtails… Then mum smacked me again and I had to apologize. I did and the weird thing is, we've been best friends ever since.))))) She giggled and opened a door on their left. "I want to show you my collection…" She told him.   
  
"What are you collecting now?" Harry asked, she'd always had something stored up.   
  
"Babies." She said calmly.   
  
They walked into the room and Harry realized that it was some sort of nursery. He was slightly shocked to see Lilah sitting in a rocking chair with a small bundle in her arms. She was rocking slowly between two beds, one holding the young girl, Wendy, form earlier that day and the other holding a miniature version of her self. A man knelt next to the dark girl's bed and kissed the little girl's head, then he exited the room.   
  
Randi gestured to the room. "This is my collection. I get to help Lilah with the Anila." She walked over to Lilah and peered into the bundle. "How is he?" She whispered.   
  
"Just fine." Lilah whispered back. "Danni is putting Lynde to sleep if you want to go and say good night."   
  
Randi nodded, waved to Harry and disappeared behind a door to an adjoining room. Harry stared after her for a minute, then approached Lilah. He gestured to Wendy's sleeping form. "How is she doing?"   
  
"Poor thing cried herself to sleep… Misses her mother…She started babbling about someone named Glyn around thirty minutes ago, then fell asleep." The bundle in her arms cooed, and she shhed it.   
  
"Who's that?" Harry asked peering at it.   
  
Lilah smiled. "My youngest brother Denton or Dennys as Dysis called him." She indicated the sleeping girl in the bed next to Wendy's. "She's four and Dennys is six months old." She smiled down at the bundle. "The boy who was in here when you walked in is my brother, Demitri, along with our sister Drucilla– just call her Drew, we're triplets. I'm almost positive you've met Deirdre, you can call her Deedee. Oh, and I'm sorry about Blake's behavior today, though I really should be apologizing to Ginny. He can just be so over protective of us. He feels that as the oldest it's his duty."   
  
Harry cracked a smile. "Your parents must have a time with all of you."   
  
Lilah's smile faltered and she stared out the window. "They did…"   
  
"Oh, I'm sorry…" Harry said. "I didn't know…"   
  
"It's all right…" She said. "It's been a while…"   
  
Harry looked at the way her eyes seemed to empty of emotion and sympathized for her. He had never gotten to really meet his parents, but he sort of knew what it felt like to loose someone, he'd lost a lot of people in the war, and to other people… "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.   
  
"It's a long story, but it won't be the first time I told it." She said.   
  
"I've got time…" Harry said.   
  
Lilah shrugged and shifted Dennys in her arms. "When my mother was seven months pregnant with Dennys about a year ago almost, she and my father took Dicy and Deedee shopping. It was a sale and Dee was going nuts, kid loves to shop. We lived in a remote area of Northern California and they had to take a train to the shopping town. On the way there, the train was attacked by the Undria'im and they just barely escaped. My father was killed in the struggle and Dee's leg was broken in three places, she's still got the limp… My mother managed to get them off the train and into the surrounding forest. Dennys managed to choose that moment to come into the world- two months early. It was a blessing that Dee knew what to do and managed to contact Blake, Demitri, Drew and I via cell phone. We apparated there and got them to a hospital. My mother was overcome by grief about my father and didn't really want to try to go through labor. It wasn't long before Dennys was born. She took one look at him and named him after my father, then she passed out. To this day, the doctors still can't figure out what's wrong with her. She's still in that coma. We all go to see her twice a week." She looked up at him and cracked a cryptic smile. "She's in the hospital down the street."   
  
Harry sighed. "I'm sorry." He said again.   
  
Lilah smiled. "S'okay, hakunamatta."   
  
"Hakata ma what-what?" Harry said with frown.   
  
"Hakunamatta." She said. "It means no worries, what's in the past is in the past. It's from my favorite movie from when I was a kid, The Lion King. I can't do anything to change what happened, I can only worry about what's to come." Her words made Harry think as she shrugged and stood cradling Dennys she walked over to a crib on the other side of Dysis's bed and placed him gently in it.   
  
"If your mum can't take care of Dennys, who's been feeding him?" Harry asked.   
  
"He had a wet nurse at first, but he took to the bottle very quickly..." She turned to the door. "Come on, I'll take you back to the outer quarters." They left the nursery and shut the door with a soft click.   
  
The hallways were mostly quiet. It was late and the students were in bed. Some of the teachers were on patrol and one stopped and greeted Lilah. "Hey Lilah." He said. He had short dirty blonde hair and sleepy blue eyes.   
  
"Hey Vaughn." She turned to Harry. "Harry, this is Vaughn, he's the one that healed Hermione, he runs the healing arts class, taught me everything I know."   
  
"And we're still working on it…"   
  
"I know, I know…"   
  
"Don't think that one little thing like this is going to get you out of your Saturday classes." Vaughn said.   
  
"You act like I didn't know it would happen sometime…I just wasn't expecting someone else to get hit." She muttered. "But you know what that means…"   
  
"The last member of the Circle of Fire has been found" Vaughn said with a slight smile. "We can finally get this over with. Hmmm… maybe we should tell everyone to start packing. We finally get to have some fun before we split." He gave Harry and Lilah a slight bow. "I'll see you bright and early tomorrow Lilah, good night to you Mr. Potter." He walked away then, continuing on his rounds.   
  
Lilah smiled after him as Harry turned to her with a confused look. "What is that all about?" Harry asked. "What's the Circle of Fire? What should everyone start packing for? Who are you fighting?"   
  
"Why, the Undria'im of course… Not everyone is as against them as my friends and I are. Most of us just want them gone because they've run us from our own world, and now they're trying to do it again." Lilah clinched her fists in fury. "But this will be the last time I run from those creatures. They've messed with me one to many times, not they die." She said glaring at nothing.   
  
"You talk as if you were there all those years ago…" Harry said.   
  
They had reached the outer quarters by then and as Lilah's hand lighted on the knob, she turned to him and said in a very odd voice, "I was." And then she was gone.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
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A/N: I'm on a roll! R&R!!   
  
  



	8. Search and Rescue

  
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A/N: Holy crud! I haven't updated since… like… ummmmmmmmm…. errr…. Hmmm….   
  
Now, this isn't full proof, but I tried my best, and I may re-update this later this weekend.   
  
Summary: You all should know this by now, but…   
  
It's four years after the gang graduates from Hogwarts and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean are working with a few famous American aurors trying to earn a living. They are taking a break from work when they happen to literally bump into four teenage American girls. The boys quickly make friends with them in hopes of getting better aquainted with Los Angeles, but there is some thing slightly odd about those girls……   
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The characters that you don't know, mostly the people not from Hogwarts, are owned by me, though the people they are based off of are real. Every character in this story is based on someone I know and even some people a few of the readers know.   
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- A/N2: This chapter is dedicated to lolo and Willow… Lolo, I hope this meets up with your standards… I tried at least…   
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It's A War   
  
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Search and Rescue   
  
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Later that night Seamus woke up to hear and feel his stomach grumbling loudly. He mumbled something incomprehensible even to himself in his state of half-sleep and rolled out of bed. As he stumbled towards the door he stubbed his foot on the dresser and grumbled about stupid pieces of furniture moving around with minds of their own.   
  
He flung the door open and walked down the hall, out the curtain, through the common room and out into the outer hallways of the school.   
  
He wandered the halls silently retracing their steps from earlier that night to the dining hall. Making sure to stay absolutely silent, he let his mind wander. Where do I have to go to get a decent midnight snack around here. Do they have a kitchen someplace? Probably several with all the kids running around. If they have so many kids here I wonder how they keep them in their beds at night-   
  
His musings were suddenly cut off as he heard a low growl not too far ahead of him. In the shadows he could make out two luminous eyes peering out of a nook in the wall. The creature emerged slowly and in a snake-like manner.   
  
Seamus backed away from it slowly and disappeared into the shadows keeping a watchful eye on the animal and whipping out his wand… just in case.   
  
The animal continued to slither down the wall, its claws tapping the stone silently. Silver fur sprouted from the scalp of a ivory head and bright amethyst eyes peered down the hall. Pointy teeth dripping crimson blood extended from the mouth of the creature and left a tiny pool of blood on the floor that Seamus's keen eyes could still pick out in the faint light from the moon.   
  
The cat-like creature lifted it's nose in the air and sniffed. Growling, it stalked towards Seamus's hiding place. Sea held his breath as the creature came closer and closer threatening to come upon his hiding place. So this is how they keep the kids inbed… He thought fleetingly. I'll leave all of my CDs to Dean…Hermione can have all my books, Harry can have my broom, and Ron can have my Chudley Cannons stuff…   
  
Suddenly Someone walked around the corner and the creature turned its head, but did not move.   
  
"Élan? What on earth are you doing? Leave the poor student alone." Said a familiar Southern drawl.   
  
Seamus breathed a sigh of relief and edged toward Tally while the creature's eyes trailed his movements.   
  
Hiding behind Tally Seamus whispered, "What is that thing?"   
  
"Élan? He's not a thing Seamus. He's a glyphn."   
  
"A who-what's it?"   
  
"A glyphn, one of the converted Undria'im." She picked up the creature which immediately turned into a domestic cat, but stayed silver and kept the same amethyst eyes. Seamus noticed now that there were tiger like markings in darker silver on the thing's face. "Did you scare Seamus Élan? I told you that we had visitors! Shame!"   
  
The cat-thing seemed to grin mischievously. "You didn't tell me not to scare him, you just said not to eat him…"   
  
Seamus stared at the thing in horror. "It-it can talk?"   
  
"I'm not an 'It', human. I am the Lord of the glyhpns thank you very much." The glyphn barred its bloody teeth at Seamus and proceeded to clean its fur while nestled in the crook of Tally's arm.   
  
"Élan and his family are Danni's experiment pets. She's been working on domesticating them. I help her sometimes and I can safely say that it's been quite the experiment so far." She rubbed Elan's head gently and he leaned into her hand like any other regular cat would. "Élan's my favorite. His daughter Livonia is also quiet lovely.   
  
Seamus looked up into Tally's eyes and saw the same mischievous glint that was in Élan's eyes. No wonder she liked these freaky animals, they were just as vicious as she was. She gave him a smile and set Élan on the floor.   
  
"Now, I don't want to hear of you trying to maul another person in this castle…wait, save Elaine Richards…you can eat her alive if you want, it'd do the world good to have one less horrible person around…" She smirked seeing the evil brat screaming in horror and terror in her mind's eye. "Oh, and please have Liv come and get me when it happens, I wanna hear her scream."   
  
Seamus stared at her with complete horror in his eyes. "You are scary."   
  
"You'd be surprised at how much you don't know about us Seamus Finnagan." She said with an evil smile. Cuddling Élan close to her chest, she walked away humming a haunting tune.   
  
Seamus stared after her wondering if it was just his overactive imagination that saw her eyes glow fire red for a minute, or if he had really seen that.   
  
He shook his head and continued down the corridor, still intent n something to eat.   
  
~~~*~~~   
  
Thirty thousand miles away, in the depths of a remote forest near Mt. Cook, New Zealand, three figures crunched through the snow leading three horses.   
  
Suddenly, one of them stopped near a tree and threw her hood back. "Take a minute to rest. They won't find us here. We'll keep looking in a minute." She said to her companions.   
  
"Oh no. We are not stopping again. I refuse to freeze my toes off in below zero degrees weather. I can't believe T'keyah sent us on this wild goose chase for a stone that probably doesn't even exist anymore. We have the others, why can't we just do with those?" Whined one of the companions. "And then those weirdos in the purple capes started to chase us… good thing we lost them."   
  
The first figure turned and faced the whining one. "Rotter, if you don't shut your trap and stop complaining, I swear, I'll ride off and leave you here."   
  
Rotter grumbled about temper mental Elementals and scuffed his boots against the hard packed snow.   
  
The last figure chuckled, but said nothing.   
  
"Oh shut up Dennys." Rotter said to the last figure.   
  
The female that spoke first paced around a tree to their left and felt the branches and leaves. The tree had to be sixty paces around and seventy stories tall. "This is it." She said.   
  
"How can you be so sure of that oh Great Ivy?"   
  
She smirked, flipping a strand of loose brown hair over her shoulder. "It's the only live tree for about fifty miles all around. Remember, we are on a mountain where it has been snowing continuously for the past, oh three months."   
  
Rotter snarled at her, and turned away.   
  
Dennys chuckled again and moved towards the tree. She pulled an ax from where it sat on her back and hacked away at the bark of the tree vertically. The pieces pealed away slowly, and an hour later, she had hacked out a curved crevice to the center of the tree. There she stopped and Ivy approached the tree once more. She held a hand up at the newly revealed wood and ran a finger lightly along the ridges of the wood.   
  
The tree split slowly to reveal a hidden chamber locked inside of the tree. A brown glittering stone hovered there.   
  
"Ah Elanère. You have led us on one hell of a journey."   
  
Ivy reached to a leather pouch on her hip and opened it while slowly reaching for the stone in the tree. Placing it in the pouch with three other stones, she smiled wistfully. "Of thirty Mage Stones left by the first of The Nines, eight were destroyed by people afraid of their powers, yet twenty-two escaped the fate of their brothers. Ten were found long ago, but twelve eluded us until now. The last of the stones has been found, and the collection is complete."   
  
"Wow, I didn't know you were a poet." Rotter said scathingly.   
  
"Thank you for ruining my moment Stephan Rotter, remind me to mail you the bill." Ivy said raising a hand once more to the wood. The opening closed, and the tree re-grew it's lost wood in mere seconds.   
  
Not a minute later, the tree withered to the ground slowly, and was no more than a sapling.   
  
Ivy crouched down and stroked the new leaves springing forth. "Ah Ilana, your powers astound me." She sighed and stood to face her companions. "We're done here."   
  
"You know we were called to return yesterday." Rotter said to Ivy.   
  
She moved with the rocking motion of the horse as they galloped to the top of the mountain. "I know. T'keyah will be angry, but we had to find it…"   
  
They reached the summit and saw a purple portal sparkling at the other end of the plateau. They galloped through it, and were gone.   
  
~~~**~~~   
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A/N: Hey you bloody chickens!!!! I want reviews and I want them now!!! Willow, I know you've been reading and I want reviews… you too lolo… and it wouldn't hurt to update!!! 


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